Thailand’s discriminatory treatment of minorities is putting hundreds of thousands of people at far greater risk of contracting HIV/Aids.
The Thai government's corrupt and discriminatory law enforcement and its failure to protect human rights have permitted the ongoing violence towards and exploitation and trafficking, sometimes by the authorities themselves, of Burmese migrant and hill-tribe women and girls, elevating their risk of HIV/Aids and virtually assuring that HIV/Aids will continue to be a problem for Thailand.
At the opening of the XV International Aids Conference ("Access for All"), Prime Minister Thaksin made a welcome pledge to provide life-saving Aids treatment drugs to all who are living with Aids in Thailand.
The country has entered into a new trade pact that will allow approximately 64,000 Thais to be treated for the virus. But the lack of legal status for Burmese migrant and hill-tribe women and girls has resulted in discrimination and exploitation, a lack of personal security and an inability to access healthcare and other services. Traffickers, acting in collusion with corrupt officials, operate with impunity in exploiting these groups.
If a population this large can't even access the most basic healthcare services, how can Thailand mount a successful campaign against HIV/Aids?
Hundreds of thousands of Burmese women and girls, many of them undocumented migrants, lack the most basic rights and access to services, face serious discrimination and are subject to the threat of deportation to Burma. Women and girls endure dangerous work conditions without safety precautions.
They receive low or no pay, are subject to having essential documentation confiscated by employers, are forced to work many hours without rest, subsist in inadequate sanitary and living conditions, are confined, physically and sexually abused and sexually harassed by employers and their agents. Discriminatory denial of care and treatment virtually condemns them to quickly die from Aids.
Similarly, many hill-tribe women, though born in Thailand, are denied full citizenship rights. They cannot register births or marriages, are denied opportunities for education and work, cannot access public healthcare services or reproductive healthcare services through the universal Bt30 healthcare plan and are restricted in their freedom of movement.
Because of the denial of legal status and its protections, both hill-tribe members and Burmese migrants routinely experience ill treatment from employers, the authorities and members of the majority Thai community. Women and girls are exposed to sexual harassment and abuse, rape, unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortions.
These additional risks and human rights violations are factors in HIV transmission and thus increase the likelihood that hill-tribe and Burmese women and girls will become infected with HIV. Given the absence of treatment, most will likely develop Aids.
The general exploitation of hill-tribe and Burmese women and girls is routinely aided and abetted by police harassment, which is a daily reality for all migrants.
There are solutions. The government of Thailand should prosecute and punish those who commit crimes, including human trafficking. It should provide temporary worker status through worker registration, which is the only means to safely and affordably access the Thai public health system.
And it must improve health services and HIV/Aids programmes for Burmese migrants and hill-tribe members, in particular women and girls.
Citizenship for hill-tribe women and girls and worker, birth, and resident registration for their Burmese counterparts could open up safer work opportunities, higher wages and access to education and healthcare.
It could also help to reduce the number of Burmese and hill-tribe women and girls entering situations of forced labour and the commercial sex industry, whether by force or desperate choice.
The Thai government needs to act on the commitment made this week and show the world that "access for all" means just that, and not only for HIV/Aids prevention, care and treatment, but all services needed to protect the fundamental human rights and dignity people deserve.