Nationality blues - suffer the little children

Writer: ANUCHA CHAROENPO
Published: 24/09/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

Nationality blues - suffer the little children

The case of 12-year-old Mong Thongdee - the stateless boy who represented Thailand in a paper plane competition in Japan and won first prize in the team competition and third prize in an individual category - is a reminder to authorities that they need to solve the problem of stateless children as quickly as possible.

The problem has existed for a long time yet no serious action has been taken to resolve it. These children, most born to Burmese migrant workers and members of Burma's ethnic minorities who now live in the country, are deemed stateless and are liable to arrest on sight and deportation.

The Interior Ministry estimates there are more than 500,000 Burmese children in the country and thousands more are born in Thai hospitals each year.

According to an amendment to the 1992 Thai Nationality Act, the law specifically bars these children from being granted Thai citizenship even though they are born here.

Without Thai nationality, these stateless children are missing out on higher education and other basic public welfare. The Education Ministry only allows them to receive the same basic education as that given to Thai children, but there are reports some are still being denied their rights to receive an education in some Thai schools because of racial prejudice.

Most of the children have no access to higher education because they are denied identification records at birth by the authorities. That means the children cannot go to a third country or even stay in Thailand.

Compounding their hopeless situation is that they cannot return to Burma as legal Burmese citizens. Because Thailand is not a party to the 1950 Refugee Convention, it is not obliged to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to a refugee child or a child seeking refugee status.

The country maintains that refugees are "illegal persons", so refugee children born in Thailand are denied citizenship.

Mong, a son of a Shan minority couple, is now studying at the Prathomsuksa 6 (Grade 6) level in a Chiang Mai primary school, but has a bleak future when it comes to higher education. Even though Science and Technology Minister Kalaya Sophonpanich has bathed in the spotlight of his fame by promising to grant the stateless boy a scholarship until he completes a doctorate degree, who knows when the time comes whether there will be a problem over his stateless status again.

The case of Mong - whose application for a passport to represent Thailand in the paper plane contest was initially denied by the Interior Ministry - is just the tip of the iceberg of the stateless people situation. Many who finish high school are unable to pursue higher education at university.

To solve this problem, the authorities should sit down and brainstorm a solution, particularly regarding the legal aspects.

At the same time, the National Human Rights Commission should get cracking and start to fight for the basic rights of these stateless children for humanitarian reasons, as denying them their rights will do more harm than good. Without basic rights they might be forced to work illegally and get dragged into the sordid world of drug and people trafficking.