Singapore (VNA) – The amount of money migrant workers in the ASEANbloc sent home fell in the second quarter of the year amidst the COVID-19pandemic, in a worrying sign for household incomes and local economies,according to the latest report from the ASEAN 3 Macroeconomic Research Office(AMRO).

Earnings transfers to Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand andthe Philippines shrank year on year in the second quarter of 2020, reversingthe previous year's growth.

AMRO attributed the decrease to the deadly outbreak ofthe novel coronavirus which fuelled job losses across the region, includingamong migrant workers.

Second-quarter remittance receipts contracted 8.7 percentin Cambodia, 22 percent in Indonesia, 1.3 percent in Thailand and 9.3 percentin the Philippines.

Permanenteconomic scarring, protracted travel curbs, and a structural shift in labourmarkets may mean that the job opportunities are already lost and redeploymentof migrant workers "may not be fully possible", the AMRO reportwarned.

As such, the authors urged countries that typically sendmigrants abroad to expand social safety nets, support training schemes, andstrengthen domestic labour markets.

Such measures are meant to better cover returning workers in the medium term,especially as weak remittances also hit trade balances and tax revenues.

The report noted that the global trend showed an improvement in remittanceinflows after April and May, as economic activity resumed after the epidemic'sfirst wave.

But the authors added that "the rebound might hide ongoingweaknesses", such as an increasing reliance on formal remittance channelsthat could have buoyed official in-flow figures despite unchanged or evendecreasing remittance values.

As more migrants move towards digital money transfers, countries could alsohelp to ensure that transaction fees for remittances are "affordablylow" and regulations are put in place to enable efficient and safetransfers, they suggested./.