Bangkok-Belarus-Bishkek: The Long Way Home
Channel: IOM Belarus
Date: 2020-10-15

Plenty of people take a dream holiday in Thailand, the “Land of Smiles”, to escape the cold and gloom of a Central Asian winter. Some stay longer, working as tour guides for the huge Russian-speaking market. 

Pre COVID-19, that is. 

As tourists left Thailand en masse and border controls came into effect in March to prevent the spread of the virus, a group of 14 young Kyrgyz guides found themselves without work and, like millions of other labour migrants worldwide, decided to leave.  
 
Watch their story.

The young people received assistance in voluntary return by from IOM with the support of EU.