Getting Thai Citizenship In Chiang Mai

THAI CITIZENSHIP: 'Follow Yuthana's example'

Legal team plans to travel to Chiang Mai this week

A law expert suggested yesterday that residents of a district in Chiang Mai province who are being denied Thai nationality on the grounds that they are illegal immigrants should follow the example of Yuthana Phamwan and his quest for citizenship.

Yuthana, a Thai-born man whose parents are of Vietnamese descent but were also born in Thailand, was given Thai nationality after he brought his case to the attention of the media.

He passed this year's entrance exam to study at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Medicine, but was then denied a place as he was not considered a Thai national.

Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula recently granted Yuthana Thai nationality as the young man had documents and witnesses to prove his claim that he was born in Thailand.

Assoc Professor Pantip Kanchanajitra, a law lecturer at Thammasat University, said yesterday that she wondered why many residents of Chiang Mai's Mae Ai district in the same situation had not opted to follow Yuthana's method. They also have documents and witnesses to prove that they were born in Thailand, she said.

Pantip said that a team of lawyers would be sent to Mae Ai district this week to collect information.

In April, the Chiang Mai Administrative Court ordered the Local Administration Department (LAD) to reinstate Thai citizenship to 866 Mae Ai villagers, saying they had been wrongfully stripped of their nationality. The LAD in 2002 revoked the citizenship of 1,243 villagers residing near the border with Burma on the grounds that they were not Thai-born.

The Interior Ministry has also just granted Thai nationality to Apornrat Sae Wu, a doctorate student at Mahidol University who had the same problem as Yuthana, Pantip said, adding that endorsement by the interior minister was pending. She said that she expected the approval to come in time for the student to apply for a visa to present her research study in Japan.

Pantip said a number of post-graduate students with the same problem would be glad to share their views with the media this evening at a thank-you party at Thammasat's Law Faculty. Yuthana and Apornrat are hosting the party for those who helped them gain Thai nationality.

--The Nation 2004-05-24