Employers of immigrant workers are being encouraged to buy a treatment insurance package for foreign employees to ensure their health welfare and more reliable prevention of communicable diseases.
With an annual treatment insurance package priced at Bt1,300 per worker, they will be given full medical services during illnesses and regular medical check-ups, deputy Public Health Ministry permanent secretary Dr Siriwat Thiptharadol said at a Bangkok seminar yesterday.
From January this year, 1,310,690 immigrant workers have registered with Thai authorities. The work permits of most had not been renewed after expiry of the February 28 countrywide deadline.
The tendency for diseases to spread from them to Thai people is unusually high, Siriwat said,"because of their lack of money to seek treatment for illnesses, in addition to poor hygiene in their living places, or their reluctance - in the case of those without work permits - to meet doctors for fear of repatriation".
A pre-employment check-up is being considered as a requirement for Thai-employed immigrant workers. The Bt600 package consists of examination for tuberculosis, use of illegal drugs, pregnancy, syphilis and elephantiasis. Any worker found with these illnesses must be treated or they cannot be employed.
A Bt1,300-treatment package will entitle ill workers to medical care of the same standards that Thais would receive, Siriwat said. It will be available until February 28 next year - a one-year period starting from last year's countrywide deadline.
Citing the examination of 220,444 workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia from January to June - 2,295 of them had diseases requiring follow-up treatment, such as malaria, tuberculosis, intestinal worms and elephantiasis, while another 81 had diseases prohibiting them from employment.
Examination of 77,245 workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia two years ago showed that 576 had diseases requiring follow-up treatment and another 162 had diseases forbidden at the work place.
To tackle the language barrier between hospital staff and immigrant workers in the provinces, 75 immigrant workers have been trained as public health volunteers to help during treatment. A new project being considered is to train more volunteers to work as teacher assistants in schools where the children of the workers study, Siriwat said.