Thailand is a major destination country for migrant workers due to its booming economy. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that approximately 1.2 million workers from Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar registered for a work permit with the Ministry of Labour in 2004. Of these migrants, 75% were from Myanmar, 12% from Lao PDR and 13% from Cambodia.

Undocumented migration remains a source of concern in Thailand with an estimated total number of 2.5 million (including dependents).

Thailand is also a sending country of migrant workers, primarily to East and South-East Asia and to the Middle East. More than half of Thai migrant workers abroad have been employed in Taiwan. Remittances from overseas Thai migrant workers may amount to USD 1.5 billion per year.

Thailand has a significant number of displaced persons with approximately 135,000 residents in camps. Trafficking is also an issue in Thailand, which is a source, transit and destination country for trafficked persons.

Large cross-border migration from Myanmar and Cambodia to Thailand poses numerous HIV prevention, care and treatment challenges.

In 2001, a surveillance sample among Burmese migrants estimated that 1.4 percent (316 individuals) tested positive for HIV in Samut Sakhorn Province.

In another study, HIV infection rates of 4.3% among pregnant migrant women at ANC clinics were found to be higher than for Thai women (2%).