"Ko Khant Oo Maw was in a relaxed mood as he waited at Dubai International Airport early on March 24 to board an Emirates plane to Singapore, where he planned to catch a connecting flight to Myanmar. “I was even whistling because I thought I would be home soon,” he said. Khant Oo Maw, in his 30s, was heading home after resigning from his job as a play attendant at the Kids Club at the Jumeirah Al Qasr hotel where he had worked for nearly five years. All told, he had spent the past nine years working in Dubai. “I submitted my resignation in mid-February when the UAE reported more than a dozen confirmed cases of coronavirus,” he told Frontier on April 21 in a voice message through Facebook’s Messenger app, referring to the United Arab Emirates, a federation of seven emirates that includes Dubai. Support independent journalism in Myanmar. Sign up to be a Frontier member. “I thought, ‘I’ll need to leave soon or I will be stuck here for a long time’.” The Kids Club was closed on March 15, but Khant Oo Maw had to wait another week for his employer to cancel his work permit so that he could leave the country. He checked in at Dubai International Airport late on March 23 to begin his journey to Myanmar. All seemed to be going smoothly as he dropped his baggage, received his boarding pass and proceeded through immigration. But as he was about to get on the plane, Khant Oo Maw and four other passengers were told they could not board, because Singapore had banned transit or short-term visitors from midnight on March 23..."