The Public Health Ministry plans to make migrant healthcare a bigger priority in a bid to prevent the spread of diseases, including Aids and

tuberculosis.

Currently, more than a million migrants live in Thailand but do not undergo formal or regular health checks, mainly because they have not registered with relevant

authorities.

The number of registered foreign workers stands at 668,576. Of those, 419,428 have had health check-ups.

The ministry's permanent secretary Dr Prat Boonyawongwirot said yesterday he was concerned about the unregistered foreign workers who did not have healthcare coverage.

"There are a large number of them," he said at a seminar on how migrants could prevent the spread of Aids in the country.

Prat said 17,117 registered foreign workers sought treatment from hospitals over the past 10 months.

The most common diseases were acute diarrhoea, sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis (TB). And between 17 and 55 per cent of those with TB also had HIV.

"If foreign workers are covered in the healthcare scheme, they will receive treatment and will not pass on diseases to Thais," he said.

Promboon Panitchpakdi, secretary general of the Raks Thai Foundation, said his foundation and nine other non-government organisations had worked together to prevent Aids among foreign workers.

Their project, the Prevention of HIV/Aids Among Migrant Workers in Thailand Project (Phamit), had received funding from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria (GFATM).

Thongphit Pinyosinwat, chief of Raks Thai Foundation's development monitoring and evaluation division, said the HIV prevention project Phamit began in 2003 but had found an increasing number of foreign workers with HIV or Aids each year.

"It's possible that more infected migrants will come forward because they trust our project," he said.

Thongphit said the Phamit

project offered migrant workers voluntary testing program and confidential counselling, should they need it.

Between 1989 and 2005, the confirmed number of migrant workers with HIV in Thailand's coastal provinces, Tak and Kanchanaburi stood at 5,015. Of those, 58 per cent were Burmese.

Most of the infected workers were fishermen, because they usually bought sex from prostitutes when their boats reached shore.

Burmese national Panya, 36, sought training to help protect himself, his family and other Burmese workers from disease.

"I have worked here for 13 years with a permit. Throughout my volunteering services, I have found that foreign workers hardly enjoy any access to healthcare services, even though they are registered. They can't read Thai and they find it a huge trouble when seeking treatment at hospitals," he said.

Panya said unaccompanied HIV-positive migrants rarely received treatment at Thai hospitals.

"If they go to the hospitals with non-government organisations' staff, they are more likely to receive treatment," he said.

Another Burmese worker, Narong, 44, said Burmese workers did not want to cause any burden to Thailand.

"Some people said that we were too negligent to take care of our health. But the fact is, some of us are required to work up to 20 hours a day - so how could they remain healthy?" Narong asked.

Duangkamon    Sajirawattanakul,

Ninnete Surarat

The Nation