Myanmar migrants living along the Thailand-Myanmar border: Experiences related to pandemic and migration decisions

Importance

In Myanmar, amid political and civil unrest, droves of Burmese are displaced to neighboring countries including Thailand. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about the available healthcare services and health and well-being among refugees and migrant workers within resettlement areas along the Myanmar-Thailand border.

Objective

To explore the unmet needs of migrants along the Thailand-Myanmar border during the COVID-19 pandemic and their reasons for leaving Myanmar.

Design

A qualitative study that used focus groups with migrant schoolteachers and school masters was undertaken. An interpretative analysis approach was used to analyze the data from the focus group sessions. The study followed the COREQ (COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative) checklist.

Setting

In July 2022, community stakeholders from migrant schools located in the vicinity of Mae Sot, Thailand were referred to the study team.

Participants

A purposive sample of 17 adult participants was recruited from 4 migrant schools. The participants were schoolteachers and schoolmasters who had traveled from Myanmar to Thailand 1 to 20 years ago.

Main Outcome(s) and Measure(s)

Thematic analysis was used to scrutinize qualitative data for the outcomes of health and well-being, barriers, and reasons for migration.

Results

Three main themes were identified: “issues related to the pandemic”, “teenage marriage and pregnancies” and "migration decisions". The issues related to the pandemic included behavior changes in children, a diminished quality of education, and barriers to receiving COVID-19 vaccines and accessing other health care. There were more dropouts due to teenage pregnancy/marriage during the shelter in place mandate. Migration decisions were affected by concerns over health, civil unrest, and military harassment.

Conclusions and Relevance

This study presented the difficulties experienced by Myanmar migrants currently living along the Thailand-Myanmar border. The reasons for leaving Myanmar included health and safety. Suspending education during the pandemic caused more school dropouts due to teenage pregnancy/marriage. Additionally, behavioral changes in children, a diminished quality of education, barriers to receiving COVID-19 vaccines and access to other health care services were reported. Future studies should focus on how migration stress and access to mental health care impact the migrant population.