More at risk in drug wars

DRUG traffickers in South-East Asia are among a select group of workers not worried about job losses, even as employment uncertainty brought on by the coronavirus pandemic strikes many other sectors.

Their businesses seem to have survived the pandemic largely unscathed, despite supply chains being disrupted worldwide. But while their jobs may be safe the same can’t be said about the risks they face due to the region’s brutal drug wars.

“Drug trafficking has continued at high volumes in South-East Asia despite Covid-19, particularly in the lower Mekong, where methamphetamine production has surged and prices per kilo and on the street have dropped again,” Jeremy Douglas, regional representative for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said. “2019 was a record year for supply, and 2020 has broken those records.”

South-East Asia has long grappled with cheap and available drugs. The Golden Triangle – the area where the borders of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet – is one of the most intense drug-trafficking hubs in the world.

Drug production and trafficking are estimated to have brought in profits of at least $71 billion (R1 trillion) in 2019. And the expansion of drug production and smuggling routes poses a grave secondary danger – a series of brutal drug wars has already killed tens of thousands and resulted in many times more imprisoned, during a pandemic in which imprisonment often means being vulnerable to a greater risk of contracting Covid-19.

In May police in Myanmar announced they had made one of Asia’s largest drug busts in history.

Fast-forward six months and drug crackdowns are still going strong. In an historic bust in mid-November, neighbouring Thailand reportedly seized ketamine worth nearly $1 billion, amounting to a total of 11.5 tons.

“I haven’t seen anything to suggest that the number of people arrested and the number of anti-drug measures by governments in the region have decreased,” said Gloria Lai, regional director of Asia for the International Drug Policy Consortium.

But while governments insist drug wars decrease dependency, they have done little to staunch the drug flow.

“There is no solid evidence that increasing the intensity of enforcement raises the actual costs for drug traffickers,” the Global Commission on Drug Policy noted. “Moreover, even if costs do rise, consumer demand has proven to be highly resilient in the face of price increases.”

According to Douglas, street price for meth tablets in Bangkok had fallen to about $3, down from $5 or $6 three years ago. “Similar drops have occurred across the region as supply has surged,” he said. The region “is experiencing a sustained flood of meth despite the pandemic”.

While Covid-19 has barely hindered drug trafficking, the continued arrests of offenders pose immense risks for prisoners in the region, who already face rampant skin diseases and infections in overcrowded facilities. This is exacerbated by Covid-19.

While some governments have made efforts to reduce prison populations and improve hygiene during the Covid-19 pandemic, conditions seem to have improved only little.

For example, Thailand suspended about 8 000 jail sentences to mitigate risks by Covid-19 in April; in the same month, Myanmar announced it would release 25 000 prisoners. In the wake of a new outbreak in a Malaysian prison, some drug-related inmates were moved to temporary prisons.

“In Thailand, it almost seems to be business as usual, with frequent news about new prison measures, but not in relation to Covid-19,” Lai said. In Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, Covid-19 transmission rates were high, she said, mirrored by rising rates of Covid-19 cases in prisons.

According to Justice Project Pakistan, which monitors cases in prisons worldwide, at least 611 prisoners have been infected with the coronavirus in Indonesia and 1 156 in Malaysia.

The Philippines recorded 1 023 cases in prisons, with 14 deaths. By comparison, Germany recorded seven cases in prisons. Cambodia has not officially announced any cases, which could be attributed to a lack of testing: although the director of prisons and his family members tested positive in December, none of the prisoners were tested for the virus.