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Treaty Status | Management & Coordination | Impact (contamination & casualties) | Addressing the Impact (land release, risk education, victim assistance)

Country summary

The Kingdom of Thailand is contaminated by landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) as a result of conflicts on its borders with Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Malaysia, and Myanmar. Most of the remaining contamination is located in the seven eastern and north-eastern provinces bordering Cambodia, with some remaining contamination along the borders with Myanmar and Lao PDR.

Thailand became a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty on 1 May 1999 and its Article 5 deadline is 31 October 2023. Thailand has said it would meet its clearance deadline.[1] It has a five-year Humanitarian Mine Action Plan which focuses on non-technical survey (NTS) activities in the first phase from 2019–2020, and on technical clearance and survey from 2021–2023.[2] A potential obstacle to achieving the 2023 deadline is the high proportion of remaining contamination located in border areas that were still pending demarcation due to border disputes with Cambodia. However, improved relations between Thailand and Cambodia have enabled progress on border cooperation.[3]

Thailand’s national mine action structure sits under the Armed Forces Supreme Command and is mostly funded (90%) by the Royal Thai government.[4] The Thailand Mine Action Center (TMAC) coordinates, monitors, and conducts mine/ERW survey, clearance, risk education, and victim assistance.

Risk education in Thailand is implemented in the contaminated areas bordering Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar. Most risk education in Thailand is undertaken together with ongoing survey and clearance and victim assistance activities.[5] In 2019, Humanity & Inclusion (HI) also delivered risk education for refugees from Myanmar in nine refugee camps based in Thailand.[6]

Thailand’s victim assistance program is integrated into its national policy frameworks. Victim assistance, services, grants, and allowances are primarily provided by the National Institute of Emergency Medicine, the Ministry of Public Health, and the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.[7]

Treaty status

Treaty overview

Thailand became a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty on 1 May 1999 and has since requested two extensions to its Article 5 deadline. The second extension request was submitted in August 2017, and it set out a two-phase program for completing clearance, with a deadline of 31 October 2023.

In 2020, Thailand reported to the Monitor that it believed it would be able to meet its 2023 deadline.[8]

Management and coordination

Mine action management and coordination

Mine action management and coordination

Management and coordination

The National Committee for Humanitarian Mine Action (NMAC), chaired by the Thai Prime Minister, has the responsibility for overseeing the national mine action program. The engagement of national leadership in the committee is seen as important in facilitating policy direction and progress on issues affecting the national security, particularly regarding cooperating with neighboring countries on clearing border areas.

The TMAC, was created in 2000, it is under the Armed Forces Supreme Command, and coordinates, monitors, and conducts mine/ERW survey, clearance, risk education, and victim assistance. TMAC is also responsible for establishing a program to meet Thailand’s Mine Ban Treaty obligations.

In 2020, Golden West Humanitarian Foundation was in the process of signing a memorandum of understanding with TMAC to provide technical advisory support.[9]

The Royal Thai Government provides over 90% of costs for humanitarian mine action operations through the Ministry of Defence.[10] The remainder of the budget is generated through international support. (See Thailand’s support for mine action profile for more information).

TMAC organizes monthly mine action meetings to discuss all aspects of mine action that involves all the clearance operators.[11]

Strategies and policies

In line with its August 2017 Article 5 deadline extension request, Thailand has a five-year Humanitarian Mine Action Plan, for the period from1 November 2018 to 31 October 2023.[12] The Plan outlines two phases: phase 1, in 2019–2020, for the conduct of NTS in the northeast region and part of the eastern region, projecting a release of 269km²; and phase 2, in 2021–2023, for the conduct of technical survey and clearance in all areas confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs). It projects the release of 90.96km².[13]

Legislation and standards

TMACs standards were updated in 2015 and 2018. The standards on land release were updated and completed by September 2018.[14] No updates to National Mine Action Standards (NMAS) took place in 2019, but some updates were agreed by stakeholders during a seminar at the end of that year. This included revising the explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) curriculum from two levels to three levels and ensuring that land release methodology and terminology was fully clarified.[15]

Information management

TMAC does not use Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA), but has a central database using Excel and Arc Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping.

Gender and diversity

TMAC does not have a specific strategy or guidelines to ensure the gender and diversity mainstreaming in its mine action program. It stated that as a military unit, men staff and recruits outnumber the number of women staff. In 2019, 40% of TMAC staff were women, although mostly occupying administrative positions. From October 2019, TMAC had three senior women officers serving as the Deputy Chief of Special Affairs, the Deputy Chief of Coordination and Evaluation, and the Budget Officer, with a women Commander serving as Head of Administration and Personnel.[16]

Risk education management and coordination

Risk education management and coordination

Coordination

TMAC is responsible for the coordination of risk education in Thailand, and all operators conduct risk education activities following the policies and NMAS of TMAC.

Risk education planning and implementation is discussed as part of the monthly mine action meetings held by TMAC. The meetings give the opportunity for operators to present progress and challenges and for TMAC to monitor and provide guidance on implementation.[17]

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Mine Action Center (ARMAC) acts as a platform for the ASEAN member states to share experiences and best practice, and to conduct seminars, workshops, and trainings to enhance risk education efforts. TMAC has contributed to these ARMAC events.[18]

Strategies

Risk education is included within the five-year Humanitarian Mine Action Plan but with no details about targeting risk behaviors or a plan for the number of people who will be reached.[19]

National standards and guidelines

Risk education is included within the TMAC NMAS but was undergoing major revisions and translation. At the TMAC end-of-year seminar in 2019, stakeholders also agreed that mine signs should be in Thai, English, and the language of the relevant neighboring countries, and that the risk education chapter in the NMAS should be revised and updated. The COVID-19 pandemic also forced TMAC to adjust their risk education strategy and operation.[20]

Victim assistance management and coordination

Victim assistance management and coordination[21]

Note: NGOs=non-governmental organizations.

Coordination

The national victim assistance program is integrated into the national policy framework. Healthcare is managed by the Ministry of Public Health and the National Institute of Emergency Medicine, while the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security deals with the needs of persons with disabilities. Thailand seeks to ensure that all persons with disabilities, including mine/ERW survivors, are entitled to the rights specified in its national act for persons with disabilities and updated national plans on the empowerment of persons with disabilities.[22]

Thailand regularly reports an overarching framework of plans and strategies relevant to victim assistance. These include: the National Plan on Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, the Strategic Plan on Empowerment of Women with Disabilities, the Provincial Plan on Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, the Disaster Management Plan for Persons with Disabilities, and the Strategic Plan for the Health Care System Development for Persons with Disabilities.[23]

Laws and policies

Under the national legal system, Thai citizens are entitled to receive routine health care and certain other services for persons with disabilities. The legislative measures that guarantee the rights of persons with disabilities include: the National Health security Act; the Emergency Medical Service Act; and The Persons with Disabilities Education Act. Thailand also has a Persons with Disabilities’ Quality of Life Promotion Act, which provides a comprehensive legal and institutional framework regarding rights and entitlements for persons with disabilities. The act was revised to decentralize the coordination of essential services to the local administrative authorities, which are closer to the communities.

Thai authorities were establishing more service centers for persons with disabilities in mine affected areas to ensure that mine victims in rural areas have equal access to government services as those living in towns and cities. Thailand established two types of Service Centers for persons with disabilities: Provincial Service Centers, operated by the central government, and General Service Centers, operated by the government and non-governmental agencies. In 2019, there were 77 Provincial Social Development and Human Security Offices nationwide providing services for persons with disabilities and referring them for further services as required.[24]

Impact

Contamination

Contamination overview (as of December 2019)[25]

Note: CHA=confirmed hazardous area; and SHA=suspected hazardous area.

Landmine contamination

At the end of 2019, Thailand had a total of 218.19km² of contaminated land in 9 provinces, of which 14.55km² are CHA and 203.64km² are SHA.[26] This is a significant reduction of 142km² from the estimated 2018 figure of 360km² and is the result of the ongoing survey process by TMAC to reach a realistic baseline of contamination.[27]

Casualties

Casualties overview

Casualties in 2019: details

In 2019, 10 casualties were recorded by TMAC, with all the accidents caused by antipersonnel mines.[28] The casualties comprised five civilians, four deminers and one soldier on patrol. All were adults, with only one woman. Nine casualties were recorded in 2018, including six improvised mine casualties in southern Thailand. No improvised mine casualties were identified in 2019.

In response to accidents continuing to occur in the border areas, TMAC has revised its mine risk education approach to better reach those most at risk.[29]

The most comprehensive casualty data collection for Thailand remains the Landmine Impact Survey (LIS), which identified at least 3,468 casualties as of May 2001 (1,497 killed and 1,971 injured).[30] A survey completed in the beginning of 2009 identified 1,252 survivors in Thailand.[31] These figures are thought to differ from the higher number of injured persons reported in the LIS, in part as they include only Thai national residents in Thailand. TMAC has improved its data collection of casualties since 2014. Previous information was lost due to poor information management systems and staff rotation.[32] No cluster munition casualties were reported.

Addressing the impact

Mine action

Operators and service providers

Clearance operators

Clearance

Land release overview[33]

* Figure for 2017 only includes TMAC operating results as recorded in Thailand’s Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report for calendar year 2018.

Note: ERW=explosive remnants of war; and NTS = non-technical survey.

Land release: landmines

The Thailand LIS was conducted from September 2000 to May 2001 and identified 2,557km² of SHAs. In January 2016 TMAC and Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) began a pilot project to re-survey suspected contaminated areas. Analysis of the findings showed that only between 0.22% to 13.5% of suspected areas were contaminated. Thailand has applied the 13.5% to all remaining SHAs to estimate that through NTS around 86.5% of SHAs could be cancelled.[34] This forms the basis for the five-year Article 5 deadline extension request from 2019 to 2023. TMAC has noted that the introduction of the land release methodology both increased its progress and was also less expensive than the traditional method of full clearance of all SHAs.[35]

In 2019 the amount of clearance was relatively small, at 0.1km², although 128.44km² of land were cancelled through NTS.[36] A further 13.59km² was released through technical survey. Thailand found and destroyed 2,677 landmines. In 2019 the provinces of Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son were declared mine-free. Survey was conducted in 16 districts of 11 provinces.

The first phase of TMAC’s Five-Year Humanitarian Mine Action Plan, projects 269km² to be released between 2019 and 2020, with the focus on NTS as part of the re-survey process. In 2020, TMAC will continue with NTS with the aim to release a further 154.3km².[37] The second phase of the plan, from November 2020 to October 2023, will focus on technical survey and clearance in the CHAs identified during the first phase.[38]

Border cooperation

The majority of Thailand’s remaining contaminated areas are along the Thailand-Cambodia border. In the past, the border areas have been difficult to access for clearance due to ongoing border disputes delaying border demarcation.[39]

The establishment of the ASEAN Humanitarian Mine Action Group in 2016 helped to promote cooperation in dealing with the landmine and ERW contamination in the region.[40] In addition, the Thailand-Cambodia General Border Committee (GBC) platform was established, co-chaired by the Thai Minister of Defence and the Cambodian Minister of Defence. The GBC agreed for TMAC and the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) to undertake a pilot project to clear border land in the Thai province of Sa Kaeo and the Cambodian province of Banteay Meanchey. By the end of April 2020, TMAC had cleared 95,000m² and CMAC had cleared 192,069m². TMAC and CMAC operators maintain close coordination as clearance continues, and it was anticipated that this model of cooperation would continue to be used to enable demining on the border.[41]

Residual risk

TMAC plans to maintain the local risk education network to ensure reporting of suspicious items to the local authorities, community leaders, and related government agencies. The military combat engineers of the police EOD teams will undertake clearance of any residual contaminated areas.[42]

Deminer safety

The environment for deminers is relatively safe in Thailand with the main threats being armed illegal loggers, wild animals and extreme weather conditions including flash floods and lightning strikes in soils with high metal content.[43]

Risk education

Operators and service providers

Beneficiary numbers

Beneficiary numbers

Implementation

Risk education in Thailand is implemented by TMAC in the contaminated areas bordering Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Myanmar. Most risk education in Thailand is undertaken together with ongoing survey, clearance and victim assistance activities.[44]

HI delivers risk education for refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) from Myanmar in nine refugee camps based in Thailand.[45] HI risk education activities are combined with physical rehabilitation and social inclusion projects involving mine/ERW survivors. The focus of the risk education is on contamination in Myanmar, including improvised mines.

Target groups

TMAC targets three main groups of people they consider to be vulnerable to the threat of landmines. These are deminers, security forces, and people who access the forest areas.

Deminers are seen to be at risk because of operating in challenging areas with dense undergrowth which hampers the removal of mines. The security forces include border patrol police, rangers, forest rangers, and other security forces operating near or in mine affected areas. New recruits and staff recently posted to the area are seen to be the most at risk. People accessing the forest areas include those collecting forest products such as mushrooms, and those transiting the areas such as cross-border migrant workers.[46]

In the camps on the Thai border, refugees receive risk education about the landmine contamination in Myanmar. All the refugee populations are considered at risk as they often travel across the border either as part of the voluntary repatriation process or independently. Some refugees were born in the camps and are unaware of the mine threat in Myanmar.[47]

Delivery methods

TMAC provides risk education through certified risk education teams who conduct periodic school visits and village visits. Risk education messages are also disseminated in the local press and community radio broadcasts.[48]

TMAC also supports local risk education networks from mine affected areas who are trained by the Mine Risk Education Training Center. The trained representatives disseminate risk education messages and inform the local authorities if landmines or unexploded ordnance are found. Social media applications are used to deliver messages to the network and to coordinate activities.[49] TMAC follows up with the community networks through occasional village meetings to ensure people understand the landmine situation and safety measures.[50] As of 2019 there were eight active risk education networks, of which four were set up in 2018 and four in 2019.[51] The networks coordinate with TMAC’s Humanitarian Mine Action Units.

In January 2019 TMAC held an awareness campaign on Thai Children’s day to deliver risk education messages to children, with events held in Bangkok and in mine affected areas.[52]

During holidays, such as Thai New Year, when people are on the move, TMAC dispatched mobile risk education teams to the mine-affected areas along the commuting routes, especially near the border areas to ensure people used the safe paths.[53]

In 2020, TMAC partnered with the Village Health Volunteers passing on COVID-19 related messages in order to integrate risk education messages in affected areas.[54]

As part of its risk education campaign in the Thai border camps, HI produced a drama film in 2019, based on the true story of a landmine survivor and promoting risk education and social inclusion messages.[55]

Marking

TMAC has improved the posting of mine hazard warning signs in contaminated areas with tri-lingual warning messages in Thai, English, and the languages of the neighboring countries.[56]

Victim assistance

Victim assistance providers and activities

Providers and activities

Major developments in 2019–2020

Needs assessment

In 2020, Thailand reported that figures for landmine victims have not yet been disaggregated and are still pending research.[57]

Medical care and rehabilitation

The remoteness of the mine contaminated areas in Thailand have created challenges to providing rapid and timely on-site emergency medical services to mine victims. The National Institute for Emergency Medicine (NIEM) and TMAC collaborate to provide on-site emergency medical service to mine victims, including deminers. The NIEM local emergency medical units, hospitals, and local emergency responder networks are on standby during mine clearance operations so that they can respond rapidly in the event of an accident. The NIEM also coordinates with the hospitals, which are professionally trained and equipped to deal with explosive injuries.[58] In 2009 the Monitor first identified that no system was in place for securing safe access of emergency personnel to casualties in mined areas.[59] In August 2009 the NIEM conducted the first landmine assistance emergency training in Chanthaburi province.[60] Training and coordination for emergency access to casualties has been ongoing for over a decade.

Since 1996, the Department of Medical Services, Ministry of Public Health, has organized and promoted community-based rehabilitation (CBR) for persons with disabilities including mine victims. This has included research, support to CBR activities in 15 hospitals in four regions and helping reintegration of persons with disabilities through Disability Service Centers.[61]

Thailand also promotes peer-to-peer assistance for mine victims and persons with disabilities through provision of physical rehabilitation services with the participation of the local communities. Caregivers and volunteers in communities are provided with primary health care training.[62]

In 2020 the Prostheses Foundation provided training for personnel while establishing royal prostheses factories at Ban Klam Hospital, Ban Kruat Hospital, Phang Nga Hospital and Suvarnabhumi Hospital.[63]

The Sirindhorn School of Prosthetics and Orthotics is part of the Mahidol University and operates under the Faculty of Medicine, Siriraj Hospital. It provides domestic and international degree programs. It also has two on-site rehabilitation clinics, a standard care clinic at the Sirindhorn National Medical Rehabilitation Center, and high-end prosthetic devices available at the private advanced care clinic of the Center of Excellence of Prosthetics and Orthotics (CEPO). The latter is a collaboration between the Faculty of Medicine and the Scandinavian Orthopaedic Laboratory.[64]

Human Study e.V and the ISPO signed a partnership and cooperation agreement with the Medical Faculty of the Mahidol University in Bangkok in 2013. Together with the Sirindhorn School of Prosthetics and Orthotics are implementing a Blended Distance Learning Bachelor Program.[65] Among other international students participation, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in cooperation with Human Study, Sirindhorn School of Prosthetics and Orthotics and Mahidol University, produced the first blended (including online) distance bachelor for Afghan students through the program.[66]

HI was the only organization providing victim assistance in the nine refugees camps on the Thai-Myanmar border.[67]

Socio-economic and psychosocial inclusion

In 2019 there were 2,414 disability service centers providing psychological and physical rehabilitation, supporting social inclusion, and raising awareness about disability rights and vocational training.

The Ministry of Social Development and Human Security utilizes a volunteer community-based network to help identify persons with disabilities and their needs, to support registration for disability identification cards, and to assist with communication and planning. Annually, two teams of professionals and volunteers at each community learning center provide a service to at least 500 persons with disabilities.[68] The Ministry of Social Development and Human Security volunteers, used their experience in assisting in communities to visit and collect the data from persons with disabilities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.[69]

All persons with disabilities registered with the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security receive an allowance of approximately US$33 per month. They can also apply for an interest-free loan from the disability fund to start up their career or business. Tax exemption is applicable to persons with disabilities, caregivers, and employers who hire persons with disabilities and provide an accessible workplace. There were over 1.7 million registered persons with disabilities in Thailand. In the 27 mine-contaminated provinces (historical and current), there are 357,705 registered persons with disabilities. Thailand also funds a personal assistance service for persons with disabilities for a period of one year.[70]

In response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, through the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Thailand provided all registered persons with disabilities with a THB1,000 (approximately US$33) cash transfer as initial financial assistance. The Fund for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities offered a 12-month debt moratorium for persons with disabilities or caregivers to relieve the economic impact caused by COVID-19 restriction measures. In addition, a financial aid of THB2,000 (approximately $66) for crisis-affected vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities, children and older persons on a case-by-case basis.[71]

The Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security have worked to raise awareness among government agencies and private sectors to increase the rate of employment of persons with disabilities, as required by the legal quota.[72]