Cao Tich Nhan is struggling with debts because he could not leave Hubei back to work due to a blockade against Covid-19.

Like many other rural laborers, Cao at the end of January brought his wife and children to his hometown to celebrate the Lunar New Year, but ultimately could not return to the city to work when Hubei Province was cordoned off to prevent the spread of nCoV.

"We have never experienced panic like this," Cao said from his hometown in the town of Thao Diem, a poor rural area of Hubei Province.

"My brother-in-law said that the authorities would not let us return to work before April, so he would break the law because he no longer had any income to support his family. That's as bad as a virus infection," Cao said.

Covid-19 caused more than 80,000 infections and more than 3,200 deaths across mainland China. Epidemic caused a series of blockade area. In recent weeks, while shops and factories across China have begun to reopen, nearly 60 million people in more than 12 cities of Hubei are still "frozen".

The hopes of many, including Cao, were rekindled when President Xi Jinping last week visited the center of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. However, there has not been any sign that migrant workers may soon return to work in the manufacturing centers on the east coast of China.

"We are very angry at the government's decision," said Zhang Liang, a 36-year-old truck driver from Jingshan City, Hubei Province. He was in debt after buying a truck to serve his job.

"We are both healthy but stuck at home. The government has blocked all roads, but has not supported or compensated for our losses," Zhang said.

With Cao, the driver works for a passenger car booking application in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, one of China's economic centers 1,200 km away from Wuhan, the family financial situation is becoming tense. more every day.

With no income, he had to use a credit card to pay more than $ 420 in principal and interest on a car purchased with a bank loan from October 2018.

Cao's sister's family was in a similar situation when both husband and wife could not return to work in Dongguan. In addition to their two daughters and elderly parents to care for, the two are also paying a bank loan of about $ 850 a month for a three-bedroom apartment they bought in Suzhou.

"In general, all the young people in my village are in debt, no apartments, cars or phones," Cao said.

Unlike the first generation of migrants who came to the city to work in the 1990s, young people in rural China today no longer aspire to return home to build a family. Instead, they tend to borrow money to buy houses in big towns or cities.

China's family debt to gross domestic product ratio increased from a record 17.9% in late 2008 to 52.1% in 2018 and 55.8% last year.

Covid-19 poses "enormous risks" to migrant workers, who borrow money to buy a home, said Simon Zhao, deputy dean of the Department of Social Science and the Hong Kong Sub-Institute of Peking University of Education. .

"Going back to work is vital. A lot of people in the countryside rush to borrow money to buy a house even if they can't really afford it," he said. "If domestic and global epidemics continue to affect the Chinese job market, the domestic real estate market will face great risks."

280 million Chinese migrant workers often take two to three weeks off at home during the Chinese New Year, the rest of the time, they work in factories.

With only one day off per week, most workers choose to work overtime from two to four hours a day in the summer to increase their income. But when so many people in Hubei haven't been able to go back to work yet, they started to feel pressured.

"In the past two months, all districts, towns and villages throughout Hubei Province are deserted and quiet. The roads are blocked and under the supervision of night and day," said Cao Minh Huy, 28 years old. in Nam Chuong district, said. "We live in fear. I will definitely become unemployed when I return to Shenzhen because the salon where I work is closed. But I still have to pay more than US $ 540 per month for my apartment." .

The situation in Cao's village is also increasingly desperate. "There is a WeChat group of more than 400 people, all of whom are my village. Young people talk about how they want to return to work every day. All pigs, chickens and ducks are all butcher."

"We have run out of money and soon we will be in a state of exhaustion," she said.