First Shan Migrant Health Meeting in Chiang Mai
February 15, 2006
By Sai Silp
Members of Shan organizations gathered with Thai health workers and academics in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai on Wednesday for the first meeting to discuss general health problems faced by Shan migrant workers.
Many Shan work in Chiang Mai province, because it shares a border with Shan State, and the meeting was held to discuss ways to improve their health conditions, access to the Thai public health system and a project to provide health information to them.
The theme was based on a project called “health communications among migrant workers: a case study on Shan workers in Chiang Mai” by Kwancheewan Buadaeng, a researcher at Chiang Mai University’s Social Research Institute.
Kwancheewan said most Shan workers were in rural areas, particularly on orange plantations. Many were illegal workers, paid less than the minimum wage, and living in villages far from health services. Another problem was a lack of communication, because many Shan had trouble speaking Thai.
Other Shan, she said, worked on constructions sites, as domestic workers—and in the sex industry. Kwancheewan told the meeting that previous health projects by Thai government and NGO services affecting Shan concentrated only on HIV/AIDS because of the high risk among sex workers.
In 2005, there were an officially estimated 42,411 Burmese migrants in Chiang Mai province.
Sheng Oo, a Shan member of the staff of the independent Migrant Assistance Program, said the organization ran a Shan radio program, but it wasn’t enough. Many Shan workers were too scared to ask Thai officials for help, not only because of a lack of knowledge of Thai, but because they were illegal.
Orasa Kararat, a health officer in Chiang Dao hospital, Chiang Mai province, said there were budgetary problems in taking care of Shan patients, and it was difficult keeping medical records “because we don’t understand their language.” It was also difficult for Shan workers to access public health services because some employers did not want to pay to register them.
The meeting was part of a project called the “popular health communication system research and development plan,” supported by the government’s Thai Health Promotion Foundation, in Bangkok.
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