Skip to main content

You are here

Thailand

Related Stories

MSF's work in Thailand is focused on migrant communities held in detention facilities, as well as victims of human trafficking living in shelters and immigration detention centres.

In the 1980s, Médecins Sans Frontières worked in Thailand to supported refugees from Myanmar, and since the mid-1990s, it has played a key role in providing and advocating comprehensive care and treatment for people living with HIV.  Thailand was one of the first countries to introduce free antiretroviral treatment for HIV patients.

In the past decade, MSF has responded mainly to emergencies and offered healthcare to Hmong refugees from Laos, living in the Huai Nam Khao camp. The Thai government refuses to recognise the Hmong as refugees, considering them to be illegal immigrants

MSF projects in Thailand have been affected by government regimes. Obtaining permission to offer medical attention to undocumented migrants who are not entitled to basic healthcare has been regularly denied, and MSF has had to shut down projects in the central industrial zone of Samut Sakhon and in the Three Pagodas Pass, on the border with Myanmar.

 

Mental Healthcare Access in the South of Thailand

In late 2017, MSF started a project in collaboration with both government and non-governmental organisations to provide counselling services for the most vulnerable sections of the community, especially women and orphans. The MSF program in Thailand operates in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, the most southerly provinces of the country, bordering Malaysia. The people in these areas have been affected by years of violent unrest.

The psychological support includes individual and group counselling, psychosocial education and stress management, and additional medical services such as physiotherapy and pain management are also offered.

Through an implementing local partner, is working in collaboration with both government and non-governmental organisations to provide counselling services for the most vulnerable sections of the community, especially women and orphans.

Find out more about Thailand

Related Stories