As more than 25,000 Myanmar migrant workers are due to return home from China, the number exceeds the acceptable level for quarantine, said Shan State Minister for Planning and Finance Soe Nyunt Lwin.

The returnees will be entering the country through border gates in Laukkai and Chinshwehaw.

“There are border gates in Laukkai Township and Chinshwehaw Town in Kokant Self-administered Zone. They are Chinshwehaw border gate and Yangolonkyaing border gate. Myanmar workers enter the country through these gates daily. After we had coordinated with Chinese authorities, we learnt that there will be at least 25,000 returnees,” the minister said.

The minister added that those returnees are mostly from Magway Region and there is no enough space to put them in mass quarantine.

“They worked in different workplaces such as sugarcane cutting, farming, and factories. The Chinese government made an estimated list of them. But they cannot send the workers back after putting them in quarantine. They will be coming back only after receiving health checks there. The problem is that we need border quarantine.  The Kokant Self-administered Zone Leading Committee chairman has sent a report to the chief minister about this. The returnees are mostly from Magway Region. The committee has difficulty with doing this. They have prepared 11 places that can accept just over 600. They are already occupied even now,” the minister commented.