Battambang: Battambang provincial authorities have instructed immigration police patrolling the border to tighten controls on Cambodian workers trying to cross the border from Thailand to prevent the spread of the new Alpha Plus variant of Covid-19. Cases of the variant have been found in Chiang Mai, Chanthaburi which borders Battambang and Pailin, as well as the province of Trat which borders Koh Kong and Pursat.

Deputy Governor of Battambang Province, Soeum Bunrith, announced on Wednesday morning that his office had received information that Thailand's Chanthaburi Province, which is close to Battambang, has an outbreak of the new variant. He has since instructed the armed forces at the border to check closely and be more rigid in inspecting known corridors in order to prevent people from crossing the border illegally from Thailand.

The Deputy Governor has added that the local government has strengthened its inspections, arresting a number of traffickers and their migrant-workers. All are being tested for Covid-19. According to police, the traffickers’ modus operandi is always the same. They hire a taxi in Thailand to get the workers to the border, from where they go on foot through the forest and across streams until they reach kn own smuggling corridors into the Kingdom.