Socio-ecological barriers to access COVID-19 vaccination among Burmese irregular migrant workers in Thailand

Thailand is a regional migration hub in ASEAN and hosts more than 3.9 million migrant workers, representing 10% of the country's workforce. Thailand plans to move from pandemic to endemic or live with the virus as a new normal since over half the country's population has been vaccinated. However, it was estimated that an estimated 1.3 million irregular migrant workers uninsured with Social Security Schemes (SSS) were unvaccinated. This study examined the barriers faced by the Burmese irregular migrants' in Thailand to access COVID-19 vaccination. This study employed a mixed-method case study design and a multi-stage sampling technique. A total of 398 completed the online questionnaires, and 40 were interviewed. A socio-ecological model guided the study, and findings revealed that face multiple challenges, including unaffordability due to high cost and a lack of free vaccination, geographic challenges, factory lockdown, absence of availability of free NGOs vaccination, perceived low quality, living with rumours, language barriers and an unfamiliar registration process, public discrimination, and the fear of being arrested for going out due to their irregular status. The Thai government should consider the vaccination of all immigrants regardless of their status to prevent further casualties and halt the global health crisis.