Over 20,000 migrant workers returned to Thailand from Myanmar on Sunday after they spent a two-week holiday in their home country, Xinhua reported on 1 May quoting a senior Thai official.
A large number of Myanmar migrants returned to Thailand via the Myawaddy - Mae Sot, checkpoint about 480 km northwest of Bangkok, as it was the last day for each of them to be given exemption from the 1,000-baht re-entry fee, said Pol. Col. Somchai Detpae, superintendent at Mae Sot immigration office.
An estimated 100,000 migrant workers had left for Myanmar to celebrate the Thingyan festival earlier this month. Given the exemption from the re-entry fee, an average of 8,000 migrants have returned daily since the last two weeks, the immigration official said.