UN agency welcomes citizenship for four ‘Mu Pa’ rescued from cave

By The Nation

 

 

The UN refugee agency on Thursday welcomed the move by the Thai government to grant citizenship to three boys and their football coach, who were recently rescued from a cave in Chiang Rai in an extraordinary operation led by Thai authorities.
 

“By providing these boys and their coach with citizenship, Thailand has given them the chance to both dream of a brighter future and to reach their full potential,” said Carol Batchelor, UNHCR’s special advisor on statelessness.

 

“By granting them citizenship, Thailand has provided them with a formal identity that will pave the way for them to achieve their aspirations and to participate as full members of society, for them to belong.”

 

The four formerly stateless team members are: Adul Samon, Mongkol Boonpium, Pornchai Khamluang and assistant coach Ekkapol Chantawong. The were among 13 members of the Mu Pa football club who went missing in the Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district in late June.

 

“People living with statelessness often face a lifetime of uncertainty,” said Batchelor. “This is a shining example of how positive action by a state can aid people and quickly resolve their stateless situation. We welcome this effort by Thailand and urge all states hosting stateless populations to help eradicate this entirely avoidable blight on humanity.”

 

UNHCR noted that Thailand has been a regional leader in taking action to end statelessness. Some 100,000 people have been granted Thai citizenship since 2008 and the government has also committed to finding nationality solutions for 480,000 currently stateless individuals by 2024.

 

UNHCR said it and its partner, the Adventist Relief and Development Agency (ADRA), continued to support the Thai government and stateless communities in Thailand to reach the country's goal to eradicate statelessness.

 

In 2014, UNHCR launched its #IBelong campaign, with the intention of ending statelessness across the globe within a decade.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30351816

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-08-09

Glad these boys got sorted out, but it would have looked much better if they were part of a bigger group.  Thailand cheapens itself once again.  Why not these boys and say 54 others?  It just looks like you need international notoriety to get the Thailand government do anything close to decent.  It is just so mind numbing. 

15 hours ago, yellowboat said:

Glad these boys got sorted out, but it would have looked much better if they were part of a bigger group.  Thailand cheapens itself once again.  Why not these boys and say 54 others?  It just looks like you need international notoriety to get the Thailand government do anything close to decent.  It is just so mind numbing. 

Did you actually read the whole article? 

The constant drip drip of Thai bashing gets a little tedious on this forum 

Nice to see citizenship bestowed on these survivors.

But for the other 480,000 it may be a long time.

According to the article, only 100,000 have been processed in 10 years.

The cave rescue and international attention highlighting that some boys were stateless, should speed up the processing for the nearly half million remaining persons.

7 hours ago, peterb17 said:

Did you actually read the whole article? 

The constant drip drip of Thai bashing gets a little tedious on this forum 

...ahm...I have!

And it says, that 100.000 have gained citizenship since 2008 and that (and I quote) "the government has also committed to finding nationality solutions for 480,000 currently stateless individuals by 2024."

 

So...10.000 per year for the last 10 years and if you know (and will be honest) about the Thai- government, you know right about exactly what "has committed to" means!

Here is a hint: it means #$@% all!

 

And I think, we can all agree, that giving citizenship to these, very prominent 4 stateless guys, is NOTHING but a publicity stunt!

It makes some big wigs look "good", "decent" and "human" and that is, why this happens.

 

 So...what was your point again?