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.
