Workers at Sittwe border trade camp face livelihood hardship amid shutdown

By DMG 30 Jul 2021

DMG Newsroom
30 July 2021, Sittwe 

Due to the closure of the border trade camp in Sittwe, Arakan State, workers involved in trading and their family members are struggling to make ends meet, according to the workers. 

The border trade camp was closed from July 15 to 31 to curb the spread of Covid-19, at the instruction of the Arakan State Administration Council. 

Ko Maung Aye Than, a labour leader from Chaung Ngwe Mingan village, told DMG that the workers and their families, who depend on the border trade camp for their livelihood, have been out of work for about two weeks and are having difficulty finding food and shelter. 

“We have no work to do because of the coronavirus pandemic, so it is difficult for us to make ends meet. Before the Covid-19 outbreak, we earned between K5,000 and K7,000 a day working at the border trade camp. There are no job opportunities in the village. I don’t know where to go because of the coronavirus,” he said. 

Rising commodity prices are making life even more difficult for the workers, Ko Maung Aye Than added. 

About 100 workers from Chaung Ngwe Mingan village depend on the Sittwe border trade camp for their livelihoods. 

“The situation of workers is that they stay at home when there is no work at the border trade camp. Due to the coronavirus, the workers could not go to Sittwe and had to search for food on their own,” Ko Maung Aye Than explained. 

There are more than 500 workers at the Sittwe border trade camp, of which over 300 are cargo workers. 

Daw Ma Than Hla, a resident of Thonese village in Chaung Nwge Mingan village-tract, who has been dependent on the border trade camp for more than 10 years, said her family is having difficulty finding food and shelter due to the current unemployment situation. 

“With six members of my family, we are struggling to make ends meet. You can say we are hungry because we can’t work. In addition, medical costs are a problem because our children get sick,” she said. 

“I don’t know what to do in the long run. If the Covid-19 pandemic continues, we will starve to death,” she added. 

Border trade camp operations in Maungdaw Township have also been suspended from July 15 to 31 under the Arakan State Administration Council’s directive, and nearly 900 workers and their families working at the camp are similarly struggling to make ends meet. 

Some companies at the Sittwe border trade camp involved in importing and transporting goods between the Arakan State capital, Bangladesh and the Maungdaw border trade camp have suspended their operations until the end of the month to limit financial losses, according to company officials. 

As of July 28, a total of 2,513 coronavirus cases and 146 deaths were reported in Arakan State during the pandemic’s ongoing third wave, according to figures compiled by the state’s Department of Public Health.