Hundreds of ethnic Kayan women who used to sell textiles and crafts in Thailand have returned to Myanmar in recent months, forced to leave when the coronavirus pandemic triggered the collapse of the Thai tourism sector, RFA reported.

The returnees, famous for wearing stacked brass neck coils that appear to lengthen their necks, made a living in the northern Thai tourist city of Chiang Mai by selling traditional attire and handicrafts and posing for photos.

But when COVID-19 shut down Thailand’s tourism industry, the Kayan, a subgroup of the Karenni, could not make a living and returned with their families to eastern Myanmar’s Kayah state to perform casual labour, some of the returnees told RFA’s Myanmar Service.