SENG PHOO - More than 40,000 migrant workers have returned to Shan State from China and Thailand through official border crossings since February, according to the state’s social affairs minister.

Minister Dr. Myo Tun said that a total of 42,995 migrant workers had come back to the state since February. They arrived from China through Shwe Nandaw border gate in Muse and Chin Shwe Haw in Laukkai, and Tachileik and Myawaddy from Thailand.

Shan State has 517 quarantine facilities for returnees, to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We won’t send people from other states and regions to quarantine centers in our Shan State. We only send people from Shan State to quarantine centers in Shan State,” Dr. Myo Tun told SHAN.

Most migrant workers who returned to Burma from China through Shan State’s border gates are from Mandalay and Sagaing regions, he added.

“If migrant workers are from other states and regions, we send them to Lashio by car. We also send them from Lashio to their respective states and regions by train,” the social affairs minister explained.

Among these returnees, more than 30,000 people have already left the quarantine centers. Currently, more than 5,000 people are staying in home quarantine and more than 1,000 people remain in quarantine facilities in Shan State.