Thread: Medecins Sans Frontieres - Doctors group quits Thailand

Migrants at Risk as MSF Pulls Out of Thailand

Migrants at Risk as MSF Pulls Out of Thailand

By SAW YAN NAING Thursday, October 6, 2011


Migrant workers from Burma sort fish after unloading the catch from a boat at the port of Mahachai, near Bangkok. (Photo: Reuters)

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), one of the world's major humanitarian organizations, announced on Wednesday that it had ended its operations in Thailand, in a move that will leave thousands of the country's undocumented migrant workers without access to free medical treatment.

After 35 years in Thailand, MSF said in a statement released on Oct 5 that it had ceased its activities in the country at the end of September because of interference by the Thai government.

“The decision to close our mission in Thailand is mostly based on administrative blockages we have faced in providing health care to vulnerable populations,” Denis Penoy, MSF’s head of mission in Thailand, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday.

“Despite negotiations with the authorities, we have not been authorized to provide health care to undocumented migrants and marginalized populations,” he said.

More than 55,000 people have been affected by the closure of MSF's projects in Samut Sakhon Province, near Bangkok, and Three Pagodas Pass, on the Thai-Burmese border, he added.

“They are mostly undocumented migrants and people living along the border with Myanmar [Burma] who have been deprived of access to health care,” said Penoy.

MSF provides free medical treatment not only to registered migrant workers and refugees in Thailand, but also to thousands of undocumented migrants who rely on the the group's projects for medical assistance.

In its statement, MSF said it was deeply concerned about the fate of those who would be left without access to any other health care options, but had little choice but to pull out of the country after failing to reach an agreement with the authorities about how it could contribute to improving the health status of unregistered migrants.

“MSF's departure will also mean that there won’t be any independent organization monitoring the health care situation of the migrants,” said Penoy.

Despite efforts by the Thai authorities to register migrants, it is estimated that between 1.5 and 2 million migrants are still undocumented and therefore not entitled to public health care.

Penoy said that more than 90 percent of unregistered migrants in Thailand are from Burma, with the rest coming from Cambodia and Laos. Most are either new arrivals or those who face difficulties in acquiring documents needed for registration. According to Penoy, many can't afford to pay registration fees or are unable to find employers willing to get them registered.

The MSF began providing health care services, including HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis treatment, to thousands in Thailand in 1976.

In the 1980s, MSF started providing support to refugees from Burma. From the mid-1990s, the organization played a key role in providing and advocating for comprehensive care and treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. In the 2000s, MSF continued to respond to emergencies and provided health care to Hmong refugees in the northern part of the country.

MSF began treating tuberculosis among unregistered migrant workers from Burma and refugees in Mae Lae camp in 1999 in Mae Sot, on the Thai-Burmese border.

MSF used to be a great organisation, now it's yet another western tool.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Migrants at Risk as MSF Pulls Out of Thailand

Migrants at Risk as MSF Pulls Out of Thailand

By SAW YAN NAING Thursday, October 6, 2011


Migrant workers from Burma sort fish after unloading the catch from a boat at the port of Mahachai, near Bangkok. (Photo: Reuters)

Is that Arsenals new striker

Originally Posted by LooseBowels

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Migrants at Risk as MSF Pulls Out of Thailand

Migrants at Risk as MSF Pulls Out of Thailand

By SAW YAN NAING Thursday, October 6, 2011


Migrant workers from Burma sort fish after unloading the catch from a boat at the port of Mahachai, near Bangkok. (Photo: Reuters)

Is that Arsenals new striker

Don't think so. Maybe PSG?

Bangkok Post : MSF fears for migrant health

MSF fears for migrant health

• Published: 7/10/2011 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: News

International medical aid group Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) has expressed "deep concern" about the health of migrant workers in Thailand as it confirmed that it would pull out of the country.

"MSF is deeply concerned about their fate but sadly has not reached an agreement with the [Thai] authorities to contribute to improving their health," the aid group said in a statement released yesterday.

After months of negotiations and discussions with Thai authorities, it has proved impossible to get permission to provide health care to undocumented migrants and vulnerable populations in Thailand that MSF believes are the most in need of medical assistance, MSF said.

Earlier this year, MSF was forced to close its projects in Samut Sakhon and Three Pagodas Pass, depriving 55,000 vulnerable people of their only access to health care.

"In September, the MSF came to the conclusion there was no choice but to close the medical organisation's longest-running mission," the statement said.

The MSF's Thailand mission was launched when it started assisting Cambodian refugees fleeing the Khmer Rouge regime in 1976. In the 1980s MSF provided support to refugees from Burma.

In the mid-1990s the organisation started providing and advocating for comprehensive care and treatment for people living with HIV/Aids.

In the 2000s MSF continued to respond to emergencies and provided health care to Hmong refugees in the North.

"Today, however, part of the population remains on the fringe," the MSF said. "Undocumented migrant workers and communities living along the borders are still deprived of access to basic healthcare services."

Despite authorities' efforts to register migrants, it is estimated 1.5 million to 2 million migrants remain undocumented and not entitled to health care.

"While the organisation will close its permanent project, MSF will still remain alert and ready to respond to emergencies if needs be," the group said.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

No disrespect or anything, but ever since I've known the needy, self-serving French (including Algerian, Tunisian and Marocaine) c*nts, they've always been nothing but a bunch of publicity seekers looking to advance their CVs. They haven't changed since the '80's.

So if they fuck off, they've probably done everyone but themselves a huge favour.

Is your impression of them derived from anywhere else other than the media, or do you have some direct experience of their operations?

Ban on care for migrants forces medical charity out of Thailand - Health News, Health & Families - The Independent

Ban on care for migrants forces medical charity out of Thailand

By Andrew Buncombe, Asia Correspondent

Friday, 7 October 2011


AFP/ GETTY IMAGES
There are up to three million migrants in the country, many of them from the Karen tribe, who are increasingly subject to attack by the Burmese army

The international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières said it has been forced to end its operations in Thailand following interference from the government over its treatment of undocumented migrant workers.

Medical professionals fear many thousands of migrant workers could be unable to get regular medical care after the organisation ends more than 30 years of operations in the country.

"We had enormous difficulties with the authorities to find strategies acceptable to them and us," the organisation's head of mission in Thailand, Denis Penoy, told the Agence France-Presse. "We were forced to close one of our private clinics and pushed to close the other. We will not conduct any more activities and will have no representation in Thailand."

An official with the organisation, based in Brussels, confirmed that, while the Thai authorities were happy for MSF to work on health education and disease prevention, they were not happy with it carrying out primary care. The organisation said this care was vital for thousands of vulnerable migrant workers who have no alternative means of care.

The organisation's problems first became public this summer when it was forced to shut down two clinics where it treated up to 55,000 migrants, the majority of them Burmese refugees who have poured into the country in recent decades. Providing healthcare to migrants at these clinics, one at Samut Sakhon, on the outskirts of Bangkok, and at Three Pagoda Pass near the Thai-Burmese border, had become the main focus of MSF's work in Thailand in the last couple of years.

Officials have indicated that no other organisation is going to take on the role from MSF, which has worked in Thailand since 1975 and currently employs around 70 people in the country.

There are anywhere up to three million migrants in Thailand, and as the situation in Burma has worsened, especially in the east of the country where Karen rebels have increasingly come under attack by the Burmese army, more arrive. Along the border is a string of camps that house approximately 140,000 refugees.

Over the years, Thailand has tried to walk a careful line regarding these migrants, assisting those international organisations that operate the camps while at the same time trying not to encourage more people to make the journey across the border. Earlier this year, the then head of the national security council threatened to close the camps and force the occupants to return to Burma, using the excuse of the election in 2010 of a supposedly civilian government. Following Thailand's own election this summer of Yingluck Shinawatra, the country's first female Prime Minister, a review of this policy was due to be carried out.

The Thai authorities have been working on a plan to register migrant workers through a nationality verification process in which they become legal and are entitled to health benefits through social security. Under the scheme, they have to contribute around 5 per cent of their salary to the fund. It is believed that fewer than 500,000 workers have so far registered. Those who do not register are not eligible for health treatment. The Thai authorities have yet to comment on MSF's announcement.

Aid group Doctors Without Borders ending activities in Thailand - The Washington Post

Aid group Doctors Without Borders ending activities in Thailand

By Associated Press, Published: October 6

BANGKOK — The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders says it is ending its operations in Thailand after 35 years.

The group’s chief in Thailand, Denis Penoy, said Thursday it is halting its activities because it could not reach agreement with the government on conditions under which it could provide medical care to illegal migrants.

Most of Thailand’s estimated 2 million unregistered migrants come from Myanmar, and their status prevents them from receiving proper health care.

Government spokeswoman Thitima Chaisaeng said she could not immediately comment because she was not familiar with the details of the group’s decision.

The group’s first activity in Thailand was helping Cambodian refugees fleeing the Khmer Rouge in 1976.

^ Amazing...such a well informed government talking head.

https://teakdoor.com/thailand-and-asi...ml#post1891655

as reported on the 30th Sept .....................................

MSF Thailand Pullout Will Affect Health Care in Eastern Burma

MSF Thailand Pullout Will Affect Health Care in Eastern Burma

By SIMON ROUGHNEEN
Friday, October 7, 2011


Médecins Sans Frontière's decision to close its operation in Thailand will hamper medics who cross into war-torn areas of Burma where people have little or no access to medical treatment. (Photo: Espen Rasmussen/ MSF)

BANGKOK – Médecins Sans Frontière's (MSF) decision to close its operation in Thailand will severely hamper medics who cross from Thailand into war-torn areas of Burma where people have little or no access to medical treatment.

Denis Penoy, the organization's head in Thailand, told The Irrawaddy that MSF has a long history of working with mobile medical teams along the Thai-Burmese border, notably the Mon National Health Council based in Sangkhlaburi.

The Mon medics were supported by MSF to carry out anti-malarial work inside Mon State, which Nai Hong Sar, the head of the New Mon State Party (NSMP), described to The Irrawaddy as “very important for our people, as malaria was so much reduced, and otherwise it was hard to get medical treatment.”

Cross-border support was one component of MSF's larger health programme in Thailand, which helped migrants in the country. With an estimated 2-3 million Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, of which around half are thought to be working illegally and therefore unable to access Thai health services, the closure of the MSF facilities is a blow to many Burmese.

Penoy told The Irrawaddy that “our estimated catchment population for clinics is around 55,000 people.” In addition to Sangkhlaburi, MSF ran clinics in Samut Sakhorn, a fishing port west of Bangkok and home to tens of thousands of Burmese migrants.

Nai Hong Sar added that the MSF clinic in Sangkhlaburi was vital to many Burmese migrants living on the Thai side of the border. “These are people who have not got the money to go to hospital and many are afraid to go to official medical facilities,” he said.

For the past 18 months, MSF has been negotiating with local health authorities to try to reopen the clinics. “When we could not get agreement at local level, we tried central health authorities,” says Penoy. “But after 18 months of talking, we concluded that we could no longer operate.”

Penoy says that MSF was permitted to continue with health education work, which he says is needed, “but for Burmese migrants with health problems, education is secondary to immediate needs.”

For over three decades MSF had worked in Thailand—a country long seen as a safe haven for refugees and other vulnerable people from neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia. MSF first began operations in Thailand helping Cambodians who had fled the Khmer Rouge regime, which took power in Phnom Penh in 1975.

On Wednesday Oct. 5, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra visited Burma, meeting with President Thein Sein. In a statement issued since the visit, the Thai premier revealed that she had urged the Burmese government to re-open the bridge linking Thailand's Mae Sot to Myawaddy on the Burmese side.

The bridge has been closed by the Burmese authorities since mid 2010, widely-believed to be an attempt to pressure Thailand to restrict ethnic opposition groups based in or near Mae Sot and elsewhere along the border.

The closure has impeded Thai businesses that export overland into Burma, and has made life difficult for Burmese migrants crossing into Thailand.

In her statement released Friday, Oct. 7, Yingluck said that she “admired the democratic process in Myanmar,” adding that “Thailand would not allow anti-Myanmar government groups to use Thailand as their base to fight the Myanmar government.”

The previous Democrat Party-led Thai government, along with local officials in border provinces, made a number of statements about repatriating Burmese dissidents and refugees. The Burmese government has long regarded refugee populations in Thailand as synonymous with ethnic opposition groups.

The area inside Mon State around Three Pagodas Pass has seen intermittent fighting in the months since Burma's November parliamentary election, with thousands of refugees fleeing temporarily to Thailand.

Asked whether he thought there was any link between Thai government promises to restrict Burma's ethnic opposition groups and the difficulties faced by MSF in Thailand, Nai Hong Sar lamented, “maybe, maybe.”

However, Mahn Mahn, head of the Backpack Health Workers Team, another group of mobile medics that crosses the border into Burma to deliver health care to Burmese in conflict zones, said that his organization, which is based in Tak Province, close to the Mae Sot-Myawaddy bridge, “has a good understanding with the local authorities,” and continues to work inside Burma.}

http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22220

INTERVIEW

MSF Departure Creates Huge Medical Gap in Thailand

Friday, October 7, 2011

After 35 years in Thailand, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), one of the world's major humanitarian organizations, announced on Wednesday that it had ended its operations in the country because of interference by the Thai government. MSF provided free medical treatment not only to registered migrant workers and refugees in Thailand, but also to thousands of undocumented migrants who relied on the group's projects for medical assistance. Despite efforts by the Thai authorities to register migrants, it is estimated that between 1.5 and 2 million migrants are still undocumented and therefore not entitled to public health care.

Saw Yan Naing, a senior reporter at The Irrawaddy, interviewed MSF’s head of mission in Thailand, Denis Penoy, about the organization’s withdrawal from the country.



Question: Can you briefly explain why the MSF closed its mission in Thailand?

Answer: The decision to close our mission in Thailand is mostly based on administrative blockages we have faced in providing healthcare to vulnerable populations. Despite negotiations with the authorities, we have not been authorized to provide healthcare to undocumented migrants and marginalized populations.

Q: How did the Thai government obstruct MSF’s work in Thailand?

A: We faced some misunderstandings in terms of administrative procedures required to provide healthcare to marginalized populations in Samut Sakhon and Three Pagodas Pass. Despite numerous attempts, it has proved impossible to regularize our administrative situation. Earlier this year we were forced to the close Samut Sakhon and Three Pagodas Pass projects. Maybe the healthcare of undocumented migrants was not their priority.

Q: What will be the possible impact of MSF stopping its work in Thailand?

A: More than 55 000 people have been affected by the closing of the Samut Sakhon and Three Pagodas Pass projects. They are mostly undocumented migrants and people living along the border with Burma who have been deprived from accessing healthcare. The MSF departure will as well mean that there won’t be any independent organization monitoring the healthcare situation of the migrants.

Q: What work has MSF mainly focused on in Thailand?

A: In Three Pagodas Pass, MSF provided access to medical care for migrant workers by operating a mobile clinic. We provided ante natal care, vaccinations and primary health care. In Samut Sakhon Province, MSF operated a clinic to provide primary healthcare to migrants.

Q: Who are the undocumented migrants that received MSF medical care?

A: More than 90 percent of the estimated 2 million unregistered migrants in Thailand are from Burma and the rest come from Cambodia and Lao PDR. These undocumented migrants are either new arrivals or they faced difficulties getting documented because of lack of money for the registration or there are no employers willing to get them registered. Some of the undocumented migrants are fishermen who spent their lives mostly at sea, and when they arrive at shore, many of them get arrested by the police on illegal migrant charges.

These undocumented migrants have no health insurance and are subject to arrest by the police or immigration officers. They are afraid to go out of their factories or residences, even in time of sickness, for fear of being arrested. In most cases, they arrive at the hospitals when they are seriously sick, and many times they are too late, so they die. Some of them also do not go to the hospital because they have to pay due to the lack of health insurance.

Because of their lack of legal status, the employers do not care about the labor protection law. If the undocumented migrant workers get sick, they cannot take any days off. If they take day offs to go to the hospital, they will not get paid for those days.

Because they are so poor, many of them refuse to take days off for fear of losing income.

Q: What was MSF’s annual budget for assisting migrants and refugees in Thailand?

A: 800,000 Euros.

Q: Is there any possibility of the MSF returning to work in Thailand again?

A: MSF is not meant to operate in a country on a permanent basis. Closing a mission is always a difficult decision to take. But we will always remain prepared to respond to emergencies in the future if needs are high and MSF can have an added value.

"Medicine Without Frontiers"

unless you don't work the way we want you to.

Originally Posted by Tom Sawyer

The first thing everyone needs to understand is that it was NOT a dispute with the Peua Thai Government but a long-standing dispute with the military-and-their-civilian imposed governments that didn't want MSF to give primary health care to the Burmese workers. The position didn't appear to be changing under the new administration - though to be fair they probably hand't even considered it yet - not on the main radar screen, understandably.

Correct.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

For the past 18 months, MSF has been negotiating with local health authorities to try to reopen the clinics. “When we could not get agreement at local level, we tried central health authorities,” says Penoy. “But after 18 months of talking, we concluded that we could no longer operate.”

I spent a bit of time working with MSF. Their people on the ground always impressed me.

Bloody good sports. IMHO

I've always been impressed when I've had dealings with the actual people on the ground.

Their admin however are renowned for being cack-handed when dealing with officialdom, especially here in Asia where red tape is the norm.

My guess is that there's more to this than meets the eye especially given the in-fighting between NGOs in the border regions.

This won't be the first time they've spat the dummy though and tried to blame it entirely on others.

I think the talk of a possible "humanitarian crisis" is nonsense. There are more NGOs dealing with the Burmese refugees than I can keep track of, many of who offer medical aid.