Anti-Myanmar hate speech flares in Thailand over spread of coronavirus

“Wherever you see Myanmar people, shoot them down,” read one Thai comment on YouTube after a surge of coronavirus cases among workers from Myanmar.

The outbreak, first detected at a seafood market near Bangkok, has prompted a flare-up in such online hate speech as well as questions over the treatment of millions of migrant workers in traditionally tolerant Thailand.

“Myanmar people are being labelled for transmitting COVID-19, but the virus doesn’t discriminate,” said Sompong Srakaew of the Labor Protection Network, a Thai group helping migrant workers.

Shifting sentiment had real consequences, he said, with workers from Myanmar, previously known as Burma, being blocked from buses, motorcycle taxis and offices.

One of the many incendiary comments on social media seen by Reuters called for infected migrant workers to remain untreated and punishment for people that brought them into Thailand.

The rhetoric reflects a global pattern since the start of the pandemic of foreigners being blamed for spreading the virus.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha this week said illegal immigration was behind the outbreak in a country that had brought Covid-19 under control, although Thailand’s virus task force appealed for sympathy for immigrants.

The independent Social Media Monitoring for Peace group told Reuters it found hundreds of comments classified as hate speech on YouTube with others on Facebook and Twitter.