Migrants and refugees in crisis-prone regions such as the Thai-Myanmar border often remain excluded from formal health systems, leaving major gaps in health security and universal health coverage that became especially visible during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, collaborative initiatives like the ANISE network have emerged to strengthen preparedness and improve health outcomes for displaced populations by linking pandemic response with long-term system resilience. Evidence from the region highlights that effective migrant health security depends on community-led and locally anchored systems, strong cross-border and cross-sector governance, and sustainable domestic financing, alongside integrated surveillance and community networks that help prevent and control communicable diseases.
However, persistent barriers continue to undermine progress, including legal status restrictions for undocumented migrants, limited affordability of care, weak coordination and data sharing across health authorities, and declining external funding that has affected essential services such as nutrition and disease control. These challenges underscore the vulnerability of externally dependent systems and the need for a transition toward locally owned, institutionally embedded healthcare approaches that integrate migrant health into national universal health coverage frameworks, ensuring continuity and resilience even when humanitarian funding declines.
