BANGKOK (UCAN): The Thai government announced that more than 3,000 foreign teachers, most of whom are from the Philippines, will be allowed to re-enter the country as border restrictions on foreign workers from across Southeast Asia continue to ease.
“They are teachers who had previously taught in Thailand but (have been) unable to return to Thailand,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said.
According to the Philippine embassy in Bangkok, an estimated 18,000 Filipinos work in Thailand, many of them teaching in schools, working in hospitals or as salespeople in shops.
Filipinos are widely valued for their superior English-language skills in Thailand, where English remains little understood or spoken by most locals despite years of learning it in school.
Many Filipinos choose to work in Thailand because they can earn relatively high wages and send some of their earnings back home to help their families.
However, there has been some pushback against letting people from countries like the Philippines enter the kingdom.
Thailand has been held up as a success story in fighting the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) some 3,376 confirmed cases, 58 deaths and 3,173 recoveries. However, infections have soared the Philippines with 144,526 recorded cases, over 2,400 deaths and 70,387 recoveries.
A prominent daily newspaper, Thai Rath, responded to the news that the first batch of returnees had arrived with the controversial headline: 165 Filipino teachers have just arrived in Thailand from the land of Covid-19.
The Philippine embassy in Bangkok took issue with the headline, expressing “deep dissatisfaction” with its implied message.
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“The characterisation is inappropriate, insensitive and unhelpful at a time when all of us, brothers and sisters in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), are closely cooperating to deal with the new and unforeseen challenges brought about by the coronavirus,” the embassy said in an open letter.
Thai officials hastened to reassure the public by saying that all arrivals from the Philippines would be screened before they can enter to resume their work.
“Please rest assured that although the outbreak situation in the Philippines is severe, everyone will be thoroughly screened,” a government spokesperson said.
Many Thais have expressed support for the Filipino teachers by condemning those with overt xenophobic attitudes. “Ignorance is an ugly beast,” one commenter noted on social media.
A degree of weariness against foreigners has been evident in recent weeks in Thailand, with some locals suspecting them of being potential carriers of Covid-19.
In early August the organisers of the Midnight Marathon Bangkok 2020 announced that they would bar foreign nationals from participating in the upcoming sporting event, including those that have been staying in the country since before the pandemic.
However, they have since backed down in the face of widespread outrage, issuing a statement of apology. “Offending (the foreign expat) community is the last thing we wanted to do,” said Boonperm Intanapasat, director of the event. “We love athletes of all nationalities.”
