Thailand – MT Baseline Assessment – Myanmar Migrants (August 2023)

To gain a better understanding of the presence of migrants, IOM initiated mobility tracking activities in provinces along Thailand’s border with Myanmar. Mobility tracking is designed to estimate the number of people living in communities in border provinces, including the number of non-Thai individuals, predominantly Myanmar nationals, who arrived postmilitary takeover. The activity provides critical baseline information regarding the locations and volume of Myanmar nationals in Thailand, allowing for better targeted programming and response. Mobility tracking is conducted by interviewing key informants over the phone or in-person. Key informants are usually officially recognized village leaders or similar authority figures who provide information on the demographics of their respective communities. IOM conducts this activity on a regular basis, aiming for bi-monthly updates, to maintain upto-date data on migrant presence in assessed communities. This report provides a snapshot as of August 2023. Highlighted districts in the map to the left represent areas in which IOM has collected data. Sometimes coverage is only partial. Across 641 assessed locations in 115 sub-districts and 44 districts, there are an estimated 263,000 non-Thai individuals. For reference, the overall estimated population in the assessed locations is 920,000 individuals. A quarter of the non-Thai population (60,000 individuals) are reported to have arrived since the military takeover in Myanmar. The three districts with the highest presence of non-Thai individuals identified are Mae Sot (74,000 ind.) in Tak province as well as Mueang Ranong (57,000 ind.) and Kra Buri (20,000 ind.), both in Ranong province.