The destructive coronavirus, now known as the Covid-19, has brought the entire world to its knees as it continues to threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands around the world while disrupting and shaking the global economy. The fight against the deadly virus has been a real struggle for governments throughout the world as even the most developed economies such as the United States of America and the European Union are failing to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. As the global economy came to a standstill due to the coronavirus pandemic, it is said that the least developed countries and developing countries are most at risk as those countries are ill equipped to fend off the pandemic as well as being more vulnerable economically.
Non-European landlocked countries usually have weaker economies and many migrants from these countries work abroad in order to support their livelihood. A remittance, money sent by migrants to their home country, is one of the largest financial inflows to developing countries. Thus, we can make an educated guess that millions of migrants from landlocked developing countries are working, studying and living abroad in more developed countries. For instance, thousands of migrant laborers from Laos, a landlocked developing country and one of the least developed countries in Southeast Asia, work in Thailand. But the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Thailand soared past 1,000, and thousands of Lao and Burmese migrants flooded border crossings and bus stations in order return to their respective countries, defying the government’s request to stay put.
Laos was one of the last Asian countries without a confirmed case of the Covid-19 amid growing fear of the disease spreading undetected in the landlocked developing country. But recently, the Laos Health Ministry confirmed its first two cases of the coronavirus, becoming the last Southeast Asian nation to officially record the infection. As the country recently confirmed its first cases of the coronavirus, Laos began to set quarantine requirements for the thousands of migrant laborers returning home from abroad, especially from neighboring Thailand.
On the other hand, landlocked Mongolia has been implementing measures to evacuate its citizens through charter flights. Sandwiched between China and Russia, Mongolia was regarded as one of countries at highest risk of importing the Covid-19 as it directly neighbors with China. However, the first case of the coronavirus was not confirmed until the beginning of March 2020. Mongolia has been taking strict measures since the outbreak of the Covid-19 in China has been revealed to the global community at the beginning of the year 2020. The Government of Mongolia started to evacuate those who are considered vulnerable to the disease from Europe, Japan, Korea and China through train and charter flights. As of the end of March 2020, nearly 1,000 people have been evacuated from the aforementioned countries. Since the first case was confirmed at the beginning of March 2020, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases stand at 11 by the end of the same month. However, the Mongolian government still plans to resume evacuating its citizens from the countries hit by coronavirus.
This raises a question on how other landlocked developing countries are coping with this pandemic and what measures are being taken regarding the flood of migrants wishing to return home due to the outbreak. Let us briefly look at some notable cases of other landlocked developing countries.
Kazakhstan. The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the largest landlocked country in the world soared past 100 just within the month of March. Although the country has closed its borders to foreigners, Kazakh citizens are still allowed to return. It has been reported that about 1.3 thousand Kazakhstan citizens living abroad appealed to return to their country and more than 400 citizens of the country have been evacuated from China. Furthermore, the Government of Kazakhstan evacuated its citizens from Poland, Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan. The country confirmed its first case in the end of February 2020, but the number of confirmed cases surged up to more than 100 by the end of March. According to news.az, about 10,000 Azerbaijani citizens have been evacuated from other countries. Azerbaijan temporarily closed borders with neighboring Iran and Turkey as the number of confirmed cases in Iran is well past 20,000 while the cases are also rapidly rising in the latter.
Uzbekistan. Surprisingly the number of confirmed cases of the Covid-19 in one of the most populous countries in Central Asia is about 60 as of this moment. Same as the other landlocked developing nations such as Kazakhstan and Belarus, Uzbekistan has many migrant laborers working in Russia. As Russia has closed its borders to all non-citizens, thousands of migrant laborers from Central Asian countries including Uzbekistan are stranded on Russian borders. Uzbekistan has been in talks with Russian officials in order to permission for charter flights as the Uzbekistan government said that the citizens will be evacuated.
Armenia. “March Madness” of the Covid-19 did not overlook Armenia as the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus is nearing 300 since the first case was confirmed on March 1 of this year. When the Covid-19 outbreak began in China, about 400 Armenians were stranded in China due to the absence of direct flights between the wo countries and reduced number of other non-direct flights. It has been reported that Russia has been extending support in evacuating the Armenians remaining in China. Moreover, the Armenian government evacuated its citizens from coronavirus-hit Italy and Iran through an arranged charter flight.
If the number of confirmed cases in most of the landlocked developing countries can be reliable, the measures to contain the Covid-19 seem to be working a fairly acceptable level for landlocked developing countries as their number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus is minor compared to the outbreak in other larger nations. Unlike the Western countries, landlocked developing countries such as Mongolia took strict preventive measures rather earlier in order to intercept the possibility of importing the coronavirus as least developed or developing countries know that they do not have an adequate resource to handle a major outbreak. Therefore, landlocked developing countries seem to be doing everything in their capacity to restrict the possible outbreak. But in doing so, most of these nations did not forsake their citizens laboring in foreign countries as they have been implementing measures to bring them home safely.
By Mr. B.Enkhmunkh
Researcher
International Think Tank for LLDCs
References
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