Capital: Nay Pyi Taw
Population (2011): 48.3 million
Area: 676,578 sq km
Language: Myanmar (Burmese)
Currency: Kyat (MMK)
GDP per Capita PPP (2010): USD 1,950
HDI Rank (2011): 149 of 187
Remittances (2011 estimate): USD 137 million
Net Migration Rate (2010-2015): -0.4 migrants /1,000 population
Immigrants (2010): 0.25%
Women as a Percentage of Immigrants (2010): 48.7%
Population under 15 (2011): 25.2%
Adult HIV Prevalence (2009): 1% |
Sources and Definitions
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Domestic conditions, coupled with a geographic location which links the expanding economies of South East Asia, China and South Asia, make Myanmar a country characterized by dynamic internal and international mobility. Mobile populations are vulnerable to smuggling and human trafficking, while migrant source communities located along Myanmar’s long eastern borderline are characterized by poor reproductive and maternal-child health, and the spread of communicable diseases including tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS. IOM and its partners in the international community believe that improving the protection of cross-border migrants and the health of migrants in their source communities constitutes one of the most pressing humanitarian and development needs in Myanmar.
IOM’s migration health programme in Myanmar’s South-Eastern states aims to reduce the morbidity- and mortality-related communicable diseases (malaria and tuberculosis) by facilitating access and providing free diagnosis and treatment to the most vulnerable migrants and members of migration-affected communities. The programme also aims to prevent HIV infections and AIDS by building the resilience of selected source communities and improving access to free testing, treatment and/or care and support for infected patients and their families. In addition to providing increased awareness, preventive measures, diagnosis and treatment or care, the programme builds the capacity of community and local health structures to deliver services, and the capacity of communities to address and reduce their own health vulnerabilities.
More recently, the Migration Health programme in Mon State has expanded to reach movement-affected persons that settle in marginalized communities in Mon State after experiencing livelihood vulnerability in their source communities in other parts of the country. The project offers primary health care services, and support for improving water supply and basic community sanitation.
IOM Myanmar established its Yangon Counter-Trafficking Unit in 2007 to strengthen national efforts in the return and reintegration of Myanmar victims of trafficking. The Unit’s specific objectives are (1) to improve the capacity of government agencies and implementing partners to provide interim care and reintegration support to victims of trafficking, and (2) to strengthen Myanmar’s cross-border operational cooperation with Thailand and China for returning and directly assisting Myanmar victims of trafficking.
IOM actively cooperates with Myanmar’s Central Body for Suppression of Trafficking in Persons, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Department of Social Welfare, the Myanmar Women’s Affairs Federation, and UN agencies and NGOs. IOM is included as a resource agency in “Myanmar’s Five Year National Plan of Action to Combat Human Trafficking (2007-2011)” and its activities are aligned with the objectives of Plans of Action to combat trafficking in persons developed annually by the Central Body. Recent achievements include cooperation with Myanmar’s Department of Social Welfare in organizing regular “Myanmar-Thai Case Management Meetings on the Return and Reintegration of Victims of Trafficking” and development of “Bilateral Standard Operating Procedures for Management of Cases and the Repatriation and Re/Integration of Victims of Trafficking” between Myanmar and Thailand.
Emergency Health and Shelter Aid to Cyclone Giri Survivors (2010-2011). Building on experience and capacities gained during its successful emergency response 2008-2010 in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, IOM has responded actively to the destruction caused by Cyclone Giri that made landfall in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state in late October 2010. The response has entailed emergency shelter relief to 7,000 individuals and the provision of health care services for up to 134,000 persons in Giri-affected areas. IOM’s response to the health needs of Cyclone Giri survivors is comprehensive, involving emergency measures to meet primary health needs, treat critical injuries and support disease control through 10 roving mobile medical relief teams, the establishment of fully supplied temporary tented clinics in critically affected areas, and the operation of an emergency medical referral system. These primary health care interventions are complemented by the reactivation of basic health service provision through support for the Basic Health staff, availability of essential drugs and medicine, as well as for the reconstruction of damaged Rural Health Centres as the response transitions into the recovery phase.
Last updated:
Facts and figures: May 2012
Main text: 3 March 2011
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