Chiang Rai begins controversial repatriation of 126 Burmese children

[webfact]

 

Yesterday, police in Chiang Rai started the process of repatriating 126 Burmese children who lack official registration documents. These children, aged between seven and 16 years old, were students at a school in Ang Thong and were shipped on four buses with plans to transfer them to five separate shelters before sending them back to their home country. This action has drawn criticism as it is contrary to the principles of the Child Protection Act, and exposes youngsters to the potential hazards of a war zone.

 

The children were accompanied by representatives from the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, as well as Lieutenant Thitawat Suriyachai, an officer in digital crime investigations. It was noted that these children, who lacked Thai nationality, attended a school in Ang Thong province.

 

However, inquiries from the Office of the Basic Education Commission in Ang Thong into this unusually large group revealed that these children were brought from Myanmar to study. Consequently, charges were filed against the school director and efforts were initiated to return these children to their home country, plucking them abruptly from their education, reported KhaoSod.

 

Tuenchai Deeted, a former member of the Chiang Rai Provincial Council, cited the closing of small schools by the Ministry of Education as a cause of this issue.

 

by Nattapong Westwood

Picture courtesy of banmuang.

 

#news

Full story: https://thethaiger.com/news/national/chiang-rai-begins-controversial-repatriation-of-126-burmese-children

 

-- © Copyright Thaiger 2023-07-06

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

[Tropicalevo]

Well done the Office of the Basic Education Commission. Taking innocent children and throwing them into harms way. ☹️

[Gandtee]

So where are the children's parents or guardians? They must have had someone looking after them here in Thailand. Or were they in the school's dormitories. It seems they are just being thrown from of a place of relative safety and learning, into an unknown place of civil unrest and danger. Will they receive an education? This needs more publicity and exposure. The International media would love this.

[paul1804]

I would hope that once Pita becomes PM he will intervene in cases like these, the illegally instated Burmese Junta are murdering people on a daily basis in Myanmar and gutless hypocritical Thai people in power have no voice of disapproval. Prayut should be bent over and you know what for remaining silent on this issue. If he had any integrity he would have openly voiced his disapproval of the Burmese juntas brutality against its citizens who in 2010 & 2015 overwhelmingly voted the junta from power with an almost 80% landslide victory. In 2020 almost 1 million scholars sat the higher eduction exam, in 2022 less than 200,000 so Myanmar as a nation is going backwards fast under the current illegal Junta. 

 

[spidermike007]

This is so typical of Prayuth, the spectacularly toxic Thai army regime, and is such a travesty. Sending them back to the serial killers is pathetic. 

 

One would hope for a more humane policy from a real man like Pita.