COVID-19 has disrupted labour markets around the world, causing a global manpower shortage. Lockdowns in the early months of the pandemic triggered an exodus of millions of rural migrant workers from booming megacities like New Delhi and Dhaka.

Bangladeshi migrant worker MD Sharif Uddin used to spend his days off with friends outside his cramped Singapore dormitory, but coronavirus curbs have for 18 months left him stuck inside during his spare time.More than 300,000 migrant workers, many of them from South Asia, live in dorms in the prosperous city-state, where they are typically packed into shared rooms and sleep on bunk beds. The vast complexes were hit by COVID-19 and locked down at the start of the pandemic, while rest

Tens of thousands of Vietnamese who once made a living in Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s COVID-19 epicentre, are returning to their home provinces in desperation after authorities lifted a strict stay-at-home order last week, raising fears that the highly infectious Delta variant could spread in parts of the country where vaccination rates remain low.The mass exodus, which began on Friday, has left local officials in the Mekong Delta region and the Central Highlands scrambling to track and q

When the first COVID-19 case was detected in the Thai border town of Mae Sot in April last year, Hnin Hnin (not her real name), was able to keep her school for migrant children open, spending her mornings as she usually did, drawing up word games on a large whiteboard as her five-year-old pupils looked on.Infections and deaths at the time remained in the single digits, and Hnin Hnin, a teacher from Myanmar, was cautiously optimistic that the pandemic would end soon.

Hong Kong migrant worker groups on Saturday criticised plans to make coronavirus vaccines compulsory for all foreign domestic helpers, labelling the move "discriminatory and unjust".Health officials said they were planning to roll out mandatory inoculations for the 370,000 domestic helpers in the city, mostly poorly-paid women from the Philippines and Indonesia.Those wanting to apply for work visas – or renew their current ones – would need to show they had been vaccinated, official

Malaysia on Tuesday deported more than 1,000 Myanmar detainees back to their strife-torn homeland just weeks after a coup, despite a court order halting the repatriation and a storm of criticism.The migrants, whom activists say include vulnerable asylum seekers, departed on three Myanmar navy ships from a Malaysian military base after arriving on packed trucks and buses under police escort.The United States (US), the United Nations (UN) and rights groups had criticised the plan, while hours b

An estimated eight million children are reported missing every year. However, it’s not just the young that have disappeared, but adults too. Unfortunately, when it comes to missing people, sometimes they are gone without a trace with no successful lead.According to the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), over 800 children and teenagers have been reported missing from 2014 to 2019.

According to think tank, the Institute for Human Rights and Business, across Southeast Asia, an estimated 10 million migrant workers live and work in major destinations such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Malaysia is home to around two million documented migrant workers, comprising about 15 percent of the country’s total workforce. In neighbouring Singapore where its population is over five million, roughly one million people are in the foreign work force.

A coronavirus outbreak linked to a seafood market in Thailand passed 1,000 cases on Tuesday, as authorities weighed whether to introduce a wider lockdown.Thailand has been on tenterhooks since Thursday following the positive virus test of a 67-year-old prawn seller from Mahachai market, Samut Sakhon province, about 40 minutes southwest of Bangkok.As of early Tuesday morning, there were 1,063 confirmed positive cases out of 6,156 tested - a major outbreak for a country which previously had 4,3

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Monday blamed a coronavirus outbreak linked to the kingdom's largest seafood market on low-paid migrant workers employed in the country's lucrative shrimp industry.Thailand has been on high alert since Thursday when a 67-year-old prawn seller from Mahachai market tested positive for coronavirus. Contact tracing and mass testing found more than 800 cases so far linked to the site - a major outbreak for a country which previously had j