At least 70 people are reported missing after a landslide in a jade mine in Myanmar. According to reports from a rescuer, the collapse occurred around 4 am in the Hpakant mine in the state of Kachin. Rescue teams are working and so far the body of one victim has been extracted and 25 injured were recovered, but it is feared that at least 70 are missing. A local news site reports 20 bodies of miners recovered.
The prohibition
Most of the miners working in the mine in the Hpakant area of Kachin state were illegal immigrants. Accidents in the mines of jade, a gem of which Myanmar is the main producer, are very frequent, so much so in the state of Hpakant that this activity has been banned. But the bans are often ignored, with miners accepting to work in unsafe conditions due to the lack of other possibilities and the situation of impoverishment exacerbated by the Covid crisis (LIVEBLOG). In 2020, more than 160 people, mostly migrants, died in another landslide in a mine in Hpakant, and in recent days other miners have been reported missing in another mine
Source-tg24.sky.it