No Favor In Granting Citizenship To Cave Trio: Governor

By Jintamas Saksornchai, Staff Reporter

 

Photo: Ekkapol Chantawong / Facebook

 

CHIANG RAI — The provincial governor on Friday denied any favoritism in considering citizenship for three members of the football team rescued from Luang cave, as the government pledges to speed up the process.

 

The interior ministry on Thursday promised to find a way to bestow citizenship upon Coach Ekkapol Chantawong; Adul Sam-on, 14; and Pornchai Kamluang, 16. All three were revealed to be stateless people as the world celebrated their miraculous extraction from the flooded cave after 17 days. The newly appointed governor of Chiang Rai however said everything has to run the proper legal course.

 

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/featured/2018/07/13/no-favor-in-granting-citizenship-to-cave-trio-governor/

 

-- © Copyright Khaosod English 2018-07-13

Right .. of course there is favoritism...  Otherwise they would have had citizenship already. Anyway I am happy for them. 

 

" The interior ministry on Thursday promised to find a way to bestow citizenship upon Coach Ekkapol Chantawong; Adul Sam-on, 14; and Pornchai Kamluang, 16. All three were revealed to be stateless people as the world celebrated their miraculous extraction from the flooded cave after 17 days. The newly appointed governor of Chiang Rai however said everything has to run the proper legal course.

“The citizenship application process requires authentication. There’s a clear rule regarding birthright citizenship, if their parents are Thai citizens or not,” Prachon Pratsakun said. “I have to look through the details. It has to be processed according to the regulations.”

“There are lots of people along the border who’re asking for Thai citizenship at the moment,” he added."

 

In other words, I don't want to do it.

 

 

Favoritism???

These boys may need some form of assistance for a very long time, and it would preferable for them to be able to move freely, at least within Thailand.

 

Plus...the whole world is watching...including Hollywood!

France recently gave citizenship and a job, in 24 hours, to an African foreigner who had rescued a child from falling from a balcony.

Granted, in this case we are talking about the rescued instead of the rescuer, but a humanitarian gesture that costs nothing will go a long way to boost the image of both the country and its government...

 Very simple.

The coach selflessly donated his time to help Thai children  and IMO acted admirably throughout this whole ordeal . In appreciation Thailand......... 

it's a no brainer and anyone arguing against it.........

This is exactly as it should be. Why should they go before in the que? It should be the same for all. However, the government is saying that they work to speed up the procedure, so then I guess we just have to believe that and wait for the result.

45 minutes ago, Get Real said:

This is exactly as it should be. Why should they go before in the que? It should be the same for all. However, the government is saying that they work to speed up the procedure, so then I guess we just have to believe that and wait for the result.

 

The easy reason to put them at the front of the queue is simple. It will stop those pesky (mainly foreign) journalists asking awkward questions that Thai authorities don't like answering.

Translation:

 

We did offer, but they said 'No Thanks'. We wouldn't like to have that in the papers.

43 minutes ago, KiwiKiwi said:

Translation:

 

We did offer, but they said 'No Thanks'. We wouldn't like to have that in the papers.

Like the good ol' Tiger Woods who rubbed it on their faces ?

 

Seriously though, stateless children must take priority in such cases because for the majority of them they know no other place.

All those boys done was to get trapped in a cave, that brought international attention and media sensationalism. If they had been swept away by a tidal wave or killed in a coach crash, they would hardly had been considered news worthy.

 

Sorry to say; they are hardly heroes, but the event did bring international collaboration and unity, which was a wonderful thing. As for giving some of them Thai citizenship, would mean having to change the law for all and applying citizenship for the whole community. Can`t this will happen over night, if ever.

I suspect that the international press would have something to say, if they leave English speaking Adul and his stateless  chums behind, - when the team  visit Manchester United etc.

1 hour ago, cyberfarang said:

All those boys done was to get trapped in a cave

 

Sorry to say; they are hardly heroes

The heroes are the rescuers, but in this specific case, the victims are very worthy of admiration for their incredible resilience!

 

To those who dismiss the achievements of this group, I would suggest to think hard (assuming they can) and imagine how they would react facing similar conditions???

 

Even careful people can find themselves in a terrifying situation after a natural event...an unexpected earthquake can bring down the building where you were staying, and before you know it, you find yourself deep under tons of rubble!

 

How would you react? Would you remain as calm as these kids, for many days?

 

Think before making statements!

The legend of the cave kids will bring a lot of tourism to the area and has generally shown Thailand and Thais in a good light ... so perhaps a small reward of citizenship is the correct gesture. 

1 hour ago, maimeepom said:

I suspect that the international press would have something to say, if they leave English speaking Adul and his stateless  chums behind, - when the team  visit Manchester United etc.

 

If little Adul plays his cards right he will shout "asylum" to the first UK immigration staff that he meets ... brilliant! ?

6 hours ago, Get Real said:

This is exactly as it should be. Why should they go before in the que? It should be the same for all. However, the government is saying that they work to speed up the procedure, so then I guess we just have to believe that and wait for the result.

Maybe, but in this day and age all these people should not be stateless. They live in Thailand, they were born in Thailand. They are Thais!

To not expedite the process in this situation would prompt an onslaught of ugly and unwelcome media attention from around the world. Best for them to just do it in the case of these three, and to say they're in the process of trying to improve procedures generally, however sincere or otherwise these efforts might be. 

3 hours ago, Brunolem said:

The heroes are the rescuers, but in this specific case, the victims are very worthy of admiration for their incredible resilience!

 

To those who dismiss the achievements of this group, I would suggest to think hard (assuming they can) and imagine how they would react facing similar conditions???

 

Even careful people can find themselves in a terrifying situation after a natural event...an unexpected earthquake can bring down the building where you were staying, and before you know it, you find yourself deep under tons of rubble!

 

How would you react? Would you remain as calm as these kids, for many days?

 

Think before making statements!

The facts are; this event will do wonders for tourism and probably draw in millions of $$$$$ at the box office.  Sadly, I feel these kids will be commercially exploited and there will be many cashing in on this.

 

Also those kids have progressed from being poor Thai upcountry villagers, to achieving worldwide fame.  This I feel makes them very vulnerable, just hope they can handle it.

The khaosod article says that their current status, with Thai id numbers but not citizenship, means they are not allowed to leave Thailand. That kind of puts the kibosh on any world cup trips. (I almost wrote "on any trips to the WC", but that would be a bit ambiguous, wouldn't it?)

 

 

 

 

And where are all the open borders advocates? Where's the pope? How come none of them have stepped forward to sponsor any of these kids for US green cards? Don't they have a basic human right to immigrate to the US, or at a minimum England? They rescued them, they should get to keep them. International Right of Salvage, isn't it?

It's official, this crisis had a shelf life of 3 1/2 days

56 minutes ago, jerry921 said:

The khaosod article says that their current status, with Thai id numbers but not citizenship, means they are not allowed to leave Thailand. That kind of puts the kibosh on any world cup trips. (I almost wrote "on any trips to the WC", but that would be a bit ambiguous, wouldn't it?

 

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

8 hours ago, madmitch said:

Maybe, but in this day and age all these people should not be stateless. They live in Thailand, they were born in Thailand. They are Thais!

So true! In that area you are 110% right, but please let us not forget the original information in the OP and just throw out a comment in the air. My comment was created out of the core information in the OP. That was about granting or not granting fovor for the rescued kids and their coach in the que to finally reach what you are describing. As far as I know, there is nothing saying that if you have been locked up in a cave for over 2 weeks, you automatically goes before everybody else.

If we choose to disregard the information in the OP, then it is of course a disgrace to Thailand that they still have stateless people in the country. That should have been dealt with long time ago.

Wasn't it one of the stateless who spoke english when the others couldn't? Bring back the former governor to sort this new <deleted> out.

The stateless kids / coach including the others have receive  something far greater than Thai citizenship - it's called - life. 

7 hours ago, cyberfarang said:

The facts are; this event will do wonders for tourism and probably draw in millions of $$$$$ at the box office.  Sadly, I feel these kids will be commercially exploited and there will be many cashing in on this.

 

Also those kids have progressed from being poor Thai upcountry villagers, to achieving worldwide fame.  This I feel makes them very vulnerable, just hope they can handle it.

That could be true...

 

The Chilean miners became worldwide celebrities, being invited everywhere, and yet apparently managed to keep their cool.

At least one of them is, or was, in Chiang for this very reason, to brief the families about the dangers of fame and easy money.

 

Let's hope that, here again, their monk/coach will do what needs to be done.

He appears to have refused 10 million baht for the pendant/amulet hanging around his neck!

 

If they don't get their citizenship, then the word will really know how rotten Thailand is! They have been invited around the world and as they are stateless they don't have/can't get passports so they can travel to all the places they have been invited to! 

11 hours ago, AlexRich said:

 

If little Adul plays his cards right he will shout "asylum" to the first UK immigration staff that he meets ... brilliant! ?

Unfortunately he wont get the opportunity, being stateless he does not have a passport.

19 hours ago, webfact said:

as the government pledges to speed up the process.

We shall see how the other 400,000 stateless people fare after the pledge from government.  Can see the credits now from the cave epic :   " To this day, 400,000 people in Thailand are still stateless, denying them travel and livelihood".  

This guy's on his bike anyway - believed to be a senior Redshirt, so I doubt he could give away a box of Smarties. The green's'll wait until the usual span of attention wanes then boot him out. Citizenship? He might as well try to confer the moon.

2 hours ago, Brunolem said:

That could be true...

 

The Chilean miners became worldwide celebrities, being invited everywhere, and yet apparently managed to keep their cool.

At least one of them is, or was, in Chiang for this very reason, to brief the families about the dangers of fame and easy money.

 

Let's hope that, here again, their monk/coach will do what needs to be done.

He appears to have refused 10 million baht for the pendant/amulet hanging around his neck!

 

Hope he is just holding out for ฿20m