The cost of a Covid-19 vaccination certificate is up to 50,000 kyats per copy to enter Mae Sot from Myawaddy-Mae Sot Bridge No.1, according to people visiting Mae Sot.
Residents who visited Mae Sot said that the Covid-19 vaccination certificate was issued through a broker endorsed by the Military Council.
"You can enter Mae Sot by showing your Covid-19 vaccination certificate at Bridge No. 1. If you don't have it, the Myanmar Health Department will give you an injection for 15,000 kyats. If you don't want to do that, you can get a Covid-19 vaccination certificate for 50,000 kyats and get a certificate from the Military Council through brokers. Then you can go to Mae Sot," said a local who visited to Mae Sot.
Before the covid epidemic, to go from Bridge No. 1 on the Thai-Myanmar border to Mae Sot cost 2000 kyat and the entrance fee to Mae Sot was only 20 baht.
A merchant in Myawaddy said that due to the restrictions of the Myanmar Health Department, which allows only those who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 to travel through the country this year, those who want to go to Mae Sot are making fake documents between the Military Council's military, administrative department staff and brokers in the certificate process.
"The reopening of Mae Sot Bridge 1 is the way that only the military and the Military Council's departments are making good money. The Myawaddy household list, letter of endorsement from ward administrators, and the Covid-19 vaccination certificate are required for the Mae Sot Bridge pass.
In the past, there have been cases where cars used to travel with fake license documents, fake endorsements, duplicate documents, etc. to transport fruits, vegetables, seafood, meat/fish. Now it's the same again," said a merchant from Myawaddy.
The Thai-Myanmar border trade routes, Myawaddy-Mae Sot Bridge No. 1 and No. 2, where goods pass through, have been allowed to reopen, but due to the ongoing fighting between the Military Council and the Karen armed resistance groups in Karen State, the issues of Myanmar migrant workers who will enter Thailand to work and the delivery routes
of goods are still difficult.
