Assessment of Birth Registration among Migrant Children in Thailand

Abstract

Poor maternal and child health has been identified as a health issue of migrants in Thailand. The main barriers to the access to healthcare services of migrants in Thailand include education, knowledge, language, socio-economic status of migrants, and attitudes of health service providers. Although the Thai government has declared the rights of migrant children to obtain birth registration and associated social services since 2008, only a few have obtained such a legal document. The World Vision Foundation of Thailand and Foundation for Rural Youth conducted the project “Empowering Civil Society Organisations for the Protection of Migrant Children” (ECPMC) funded by the European Union (EU) during February 1, 2016 to January 31, 2019 in which one of its main objectives was to increase the number of recorded birth registrations in Chumporn, Ranong and Tak provinces. An end-of-project impact evaluation was conducted during February to May 2019. A mixed method approach was used for data collection. This study aims to analyze assess of birth registration among migrant children and key drivers and barriers in obtaining birth registrations of migrant children in Thailand under the ECPMC project. Over the project period, there was an increase of 37% in birth registrations of children aged less than one year. Key driver of the process of birth registration is increasing awareness and knowledge of reproductive health, antenatal care, and safe delivery of migrant women. Enabling pregnant women to receive services of antenatal care at local hospitals was a crucial step to ensure that they obtained a birth certificate from the hospital, which is one of the important documents required for the process of birth registration.