A Covid-19 outbreak in Samut Sakhon, centred around a seafood market and the local fishing industry’s Burmese migrant population, has unbottled a new wave of anti-Burmese sentiment in Thai social media, never bubbling far beneath the surface.
The revelations of an outbreak of some 1,000+ positive infections has opened a long-standing wound between the two countries, including straight out online hate speech as well as important questions over the treatment of the millions of Burmese migrant workers that are recruited by Thai companies wanting cheap labour.
The CCSA yesterday announced that there won’t be any national lockdown in response to the Samut Sakhon cluster, but says that Covid-19 control zoning is being introduced and continually updated to reflect the changing situation. New Year celebrations have been mostly cancelled around the country but may be allowed to continue…
