Amid the Covid-19 crisis, migrant workers have faced many challenges, particularly in Thailand.
On Dec 14, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) held a photo exhibition and film screening at Alliance Française Bangkok to mark International Migration Day on Dec 18, as well as to celebrate the organisation's 70th year of action in supporting migrants and states around the world.
A panel discussion took place to talk about how the Covid-19 pandemic was challenging migrants' lives and those who worked with them to ease the situation.
Somkiat Siriruttanapruk, Preventative Medicine Senior Adviser from the Public Health Ministry's Disease Control Division, said health issues among migrants existed before the pandemic arrived.
"However, when the pandemic arrived, it made problems in our medical system more obvious," he said.
Five issues were worsened by the pandemic, making healthcare less accessible, especially among migrant workers.
He said the first one was the matter of who was to take care of healthcare issues among migrant workers.
Currently there is no institution under the Public Health Ministry that takes care of migrant health issues directly.
"Currently, we have only a finance division that deals with issues related to social security," he said. Staff are working on setting up a committee under the Disease Control Department.
A second concerned the legal status of immigrants. He said that if they came into the country legally, they would come under the healthcare system automatically.
"It is easy to take care of them as they come through the system with a legal document and with real employers.
"In this case, we can easily put them in the system, but if they come as illegal migrants, it is difficult to get into the system, which means they are unable to access healthcare," he said.
The third issue concerns the language barrier. He said it was not only Thai and English. Many language dialects are spoken among migrant workers which made it hard for healthcare workers to communicate with them.
The fourth one is limited medical resources. Healthcare is there not just for migrant workers alone, but for Thais as well.
"We have limited medical personnel and medical equipment. When the pandemic came, it infected everyone, and demand for beds rose."
The last issue was financing, as it was hard making the budget stretch to cover everyone in need. "This is big challenge," he added.
Regarding migrant workers under Covid-19, he said that since April this year, 166,000 cases arose of migrant workers being infected in Thailand, or nearly 7.8% of total Thai infections, with 446 deaths reported.
"The fatality rate is only 0.12% and when compared to the Thai population, it is only 0.98%."
Most are Myanmar, followed by Cambodians and Lao. Most of those infected were young, which meant the severity was not serious.
The Public Health Ministry implemented measures to contain the spread among migrant workers such as contact testing, screening and quarantine, and the Bubble and Seal project.
For the vaccine scheme, more than 3 million doses of vaccines were administered among foreigners and migrants and most came under the state budget.
"Most were given two complete doses and the government is encouraging them to get a booster dose.
"Initially, they were given Sinovac or Sinopharm, but we now have a variety of vaccines, they can choose whatever they want and the ministry is encouraging them to go to the hospital to get vaccination," he said.
The ministry also offered health education and stepped up communication among migrant workers. He said it translated Covid-19 related media into various languages.
"We also arranged training courses for foreigners called 'Foreign Health Volunteers' to train them about the Covid-19 situation. We believe they could return to their community and deliver a message about what they have learned," he added.
Rina Chandran, a Thompson Reuters Foundation correspondent, raised the issue of housing among migrant workers that was a hotspot for infections across the region.
"Their living conditions exacerbate the situation because housing for migrants has never been a priority for the government. They are just housed somewhere outside the city or if they are in the city, it will be very cramped housing," she said.
"And it is just a place for them to be sheltered because they are expected to spend the bulk of their day at their worksite. And these living quarters became a hotspot for infections naturally because they are such cramped quarters where there is no prospect of social distancing, let alone handwashing," she said.
Even as Thailand steps up its doses, having now administered more than 3 million vaccines to foreigners including migrant workers, their housing and working conditions have not improved.
"There is no any other plan from the region for improving housing or access to healthcare. As the infection rates are low, everyone has gone back to things as they were. I am not hopeful that things will change for migrant workers," she added.
Many migrants were young and healthy, so they were not prioritised for the vaccination programme. However, when they fell ill amid their poor housing conditions, the disease spread to the larger community, and it was only then that the government started to take notice.
"It is ironic that migrant workers are largely invisible to us. We do not really see them at the construction sites or factories, or even when we see them on the roadside or in the market for example, we do not really see them."
Suddenly, during the pandemic, they were really visible because they were blamed for infections. "They are being blamed for being in a hotspot as if they were responsible for Covid-19 itself," she added.
Research showed there were 1.6 billion people across the Indo Pacific region who lack access to social health protection and big chunk were migrant workers.
"The research showed that migrant workers have not recovered from the financial or physical setbacks from the pandemic and there has been no support to help them with that," she added.
She said pressure from the UN could lead to a better response by the system.
