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Coronavirus (COVID-19): Cambodian Border & Immigration Policy Updates

Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing specifically the Immigration policies arising in Cambodia as a result of this COVID-19 pandemic. That is actually what the WHO is calling in so I am going to go ahead and call it that. 

The reason I am making this video is more the sort of tangential impact of Cambodian Immigration Policy on folks here in Thailand. Cambodia is a place where a lot of folks here in Thailand go to do visa runs, border runs and generally go for brief vacations as well. We oftentimes, especially long staying tourists will often do some days over in Cambodia seeing things like Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh or going down to see Sihanoukville while they are over in Southeast Asia. So there is a lot of travel, especially tourism-related travel, between Thailand and Cambodia and there is also a lot of Border Run related travel so I decided to make this video to go ahead and provide some insight into what Cambodia is doing with respect to this Coronavirus outbreak.

In an article from the Star that is the star.com.my. The title is Cambodia Bans Visitors from 5 Countries in a Bid to Curb COVID-19. Quoting directly: "Cambodia on Saturday March 14th announced restrictions on visitors from 5 countries for a month in a bid to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus disease."  Quoting further: "The Ministry of Health decided to temporarily ban foreigners from Italy, Germany, Spain, France and the United States from entering Cambodia for 30 days. Health Minister Mam Bunheng said in a statement. He said the restrictions will take effect from March 17th at midnight." 

So folks from those countries including the United States, and I know we have a lot of viewers from the United States on this channel, are not going to be able to get into Cambodia for at least a month. This ban apparently applies for the forthcoming month. So those who are looking to do for example a Visa Run or a border run, we have done other videos on this channel about how the borders are being somewhat sealed but they are still leaving limited access via international checkpoints at the borders. If you are one of those nationalities I just mentioned it is basically going to be impossible for you to cross even at one of those checkpoints and as I explained in that other video, even at those checkpoints it is going to be really difficult. I would say, if you are foreign national even at one of these limited land border checkpoints, probably impossible. 

So the thing to take away from this video is if you are one of the western nationalities I mentioned Cambodia is just a no-go. If you are of another nationality and you are unsure, just remember there are a lot of restrictions here so it remains to be seen exactly what they are going to be doing with folks that are coming in by air, land or sea in Cambodia but probably not the best place to go for a border run at least for the foreseeable future; I would say probably for at least the next month.