Thai woman fights for the rights of the countries stateless population

BANGKOK: -- The stateless population of Thailand has no nationality, they are not recognized or accepted as citizens by any country and have no ID cards or passports.

Thailand is home to around half a million stateless people who make up part of its seventy million population, according to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, only Myanmar and Nepal have higher numbers.

Some of Thailand’s stateless people are from remote hill tribes that have ties to the territory but an ethnicity distinct from the Thai majority. Others are the children of illegal migrants who fled to Thailand to avoid persecution and poverty in countries such as Myanmar.

Stateless children, like Srinuan Saokhamnuan, have only two career choices, to work in factories or sell sex. Those who try to leave their villages with no ID face the risk of extortion and arrest and often fall prey to human traffickers who simply make stateless girls ‘disappear’. It is not uncommon for men to arrive in the villages of stateless communities offering jobs that pay a good wage for young women. Many of the women are forced into prostitution, simply because they have no choice. Stateless people have no rights to the basics that most people take for granted such as healthcare, education and employment, they cannot open bank accounts or buy a house or even get married.

Srinuan managed to escape the confines of her village in Chiang Rai province and according to a report in Reuters, is the first stateless person to be granted permission to leave Thailand to stury in the USA. Now age 25 Srinuan will speak in The Hague at the world’s first forum focusing on the more than ten million stateless people worldwide.

Although, in order to address the problem, Thailand reformed its nationality law in 2008 and it has a national strategy to help people acquire citizenship, many stateless people remain unaware of their rights and have difficulty finding their way the bureaucracy involved in getting citizenship.

Srinuan was one of the lucky ones and graduated from an education program run by a non-profit organization that works in Thailand to tackle child exploitation and prostitution – Development and Education Programme for Daughters and Communities. She went on to win a scholarship to study at the University of Wisconsin with assistance from the project. This was only made possible for her when the Thai authorities issued her an alien travel document that allows her to study overseas, although she still has to travel back to Thailand each year to renew her paperwork and often encounters arrest and harassment on her return, and has paid bribes to boarder security who have not believed in the authenticity of her documents.

Two years ago with help from the Thailand Project she met with a new district chief how promised to help her when he discovered that she was born in Thailand and studies in the USA, a few weeks later she got her first ID card along with around five hundred other people who had the right documents.

This year in May she will graduate with a degree in communications and public relations and wants to help other stateless people gain citizenship.

-- Samui Times 2014-09-13

Congratulations. Good to see people like her. Hope more Thais will follow....

Thailand is in breach of its international obligations in not finally rectifying the issue of stateless Thais who live within the country. This problem has been around for decades and changes to govt policy a few years ago where meant to finally rectify this issue.

However, it seems that in many provinces local officials show a reluctance to implement changes and grant Thai citizenship to those ethnic minorities, hill tribes and minority groups that have live there for decades. This just continues their marginalization and discrimination especially when they cannot even seek basic health and education services like all thais.

Not having a Thai ID card is a virtual one way ticket to poverty, exploitation and marginalisation.

http://www.voanews.com/content/stateless-minorities-struggle-for-recognition-services-in-thailand-112869749/133117.html

http://www.unicef.org/thailand/reallives_10445.html

http://www.irinnews.org/report/91873/thailand-citizenship-hope-for-thousands-of-stateless-people

http://www.unescobkk.org/culture/diversity/trafficking-hiv/projects/highland-citizenship-and-birth-registration-project/

Thailand covering itself in glory for how it treats minorities.

Why do they let themselves get so out of whack with international norms? Why?

Where do you think the cheap labour comes from ?

well done young lady-respect! hope you will succeed.

"Thailand is home to around half a million stateless people who make up part of its seventy million population, according to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, only Myanmar and Nepal have higher numbers."

Damn it; Thailand is not the hub of stateless persons living within the populus.

It came third......... shame on Thailand for getting the bronze medal, as usual.

I hope this Lass brings these things under the noses of those in power by means of social media or whatever way possible. Nothing will be done until shame is brought upon those in powerful positions by exposing the problem to the widest possible audience.

Brave young lady.....and a very worthwhile cause she's attempting, especially here in Thailand where so many people, even having been born here, are not recognised......which is a very poor reflection on the country.

Good luck K. Srinuan

Good job !!!!!!!!!

every cloud has a silver lining they proberly dont have to pay taxes either

so half a million Thais have no right to vote? without nationality how can nationals vote? surely this means that democracy is impossible until you give citizens their right to their motherland

This woman is my hero of the day!!!

She has an ID card, now she is Thai? I think the headline is a little misleading.

My wife is in somewhat the same position. Fled Cambodia 30 years ago, was granted a "temporary stay in the kingdom on grounds of co-sanguinity' (i.e. has some thai blood running through her veins), and has not been allowed to leave the province of Trat since. Although she was issued some form of ID, it has a different color and follows a different numbersystem from the one issued to Thai people. No legal job, no right to travel, no passport. Our son fortunately has my nationality.

After 30 years one would expect some leniency from the Thai autorities, but every time we tried to apply we were -quite rudely- given to understand she should be happy to be in Thailand and should shut-up.

This article does give some hope, though.

Good for her. She should be rewarded for her efforts. Further more she should also be supported by Governments and Human Rights organisations.

She has an ID card, now she is Thai? I think the headline is a little misleading.

Yes. Last paragraph but one. And she's holding up her new national ID card in the photo.

Good luck to her! I wouldn't be surprized if she gets threats of losing her new citizenship if she starts making too much noise--but this is the kind of noise that needs to be made and more and more loudly. Much more needed than elections at this point.

human rights, better life, opportunity, somehow a "Farang" country is always involved in these sentences.

human rights, better life, opportunity, somehow a "Farang" country is always involved in these sentences.

Yes. These concepts evolved along with the nation-state, also a western invention. The evolution took hundreds of years & with the world now structured as nation-states, most countries are playing catch-up & lurching towards some system that fits with both the new order and with the prior culture. Thailand imitated on the Nazi totalitarian model (also a western invention) in the 1930s and is having a hard time getting away from that.

25% of the Thai population is stateless, meaning -- they have been here for over a hundred years but they're not really Thai. It also means one quarter of the population are illegal immigrants.

Yeah, right. These people are fine for drawing tourists, no problem, and fine for creating goods that support the Thai economy, fine, but given an ID card and citizenship -?- voting -?- well, that's another matter for fiction.

My wife is in somewhat the same position. Fled Cambodia 30 years ago, was granted a "temporary stay in the kingdom on grounds of co-sanguinity' (i.e. has some thai blood running through her veins), and has not been allowed to leave the province of Trat since. Although she was issued some form of ID, it has a different color and follows a different numbersystem from the one issued to Thai people. No legal job, no right to travel, no passport. Our son fortunately has my nationality.

After 30 years one would expect some leniency from the Thai autorities, but every time we tried to apply we were -quite rudely- given to understand she should be happy to be in Thailand and should shut-up.

This article does give some hope, though

I have been following this lady for quite some time. A great story.

I have a similar situation also. My partner's parents left him as a very young child, with none of his documents. A family took him in as their own, he went to school and has had a pretty good life but has no ID and there are many things he can not do which he wishes he could. He has been trying to get it for years and they keep stalling with some issue or another.

Very tough but as you say the article does give some hope.

Did you know that over three million Thais live abroad, have any off you heard about, they are having problems in the Country they want to live in?

I expect no replies to this as i have not heard any,

Next pls ?

My wife is in somewhat the same position. Fled Cambodia 30 years ago, was granted a "temporary stay in the kingdom on grounds of co-sanguinity' (i.e. has some thai blood running through her veins), and has not been allowed to leave the province of Trat since. Although she was issued some form of ID, it has a different color and follows a different numbersystem from the one issued to Thai people. No legal job, no right to travel, no passport. Our son fortunately has my nationality.

After 30 years one would expect some leniency from the Thai autorities, but every time we tried to apply we were -quite rudely- given to understand she should be happy to be in Thailand and should shut-up.

This article does give some hope, though.

Quite agree, are you really thinking its all changed since the 1930's .

Are you still watching Dickson of Doc Green ?

Anyhow not easy to wakeup to the 21st cent unless you're old fashioned !

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so half a million Thais have no right to vote? without nationality how can nationals vote? surely this means that democracy is impossible until you give citizens their right to their motherland

Bah, Voting isn't that big of a deal. Just means you get the tiniest part in a system designed to take the resources of people and spend them in various ways. (Rice Scheme).

human rights, better life, opportunity, somehow a "Farang" country is always involved in these sentences.

Yes. These concepts evolved along with the nation-state, also a western invention. The evolution took hundreds of years & with the world now structured as nation-states, most countries are playing catch-up & lurching towards some system that fits with both the new order and with the prior culture. Thailand imitated on the Nazi totalitarian model (also a western invention) in the 1930s and is having a hard time getting away from that.

Also, created the problems of the Nation State.

What we should be doing is recognizing that we are all just Citizens of Earth. We are all Born on Earth, Live on Earth and there is no way to Leave Earth, thus we are all citizens of the Earth.

Stateless people(citizens of earth) should be allowed to do more then just Factory work or sex work. Also note that the UN has recognized that humans have the right to work so I don't see how any Nation State which has signed onto that document should think that they should disallow someone from working whether or not they are recognized as a citizen of that Country or not.

If Citizens of Work were allowed to work anywhere this problem of working just in a factory or sex work would go away.

"Stateless people have no rights to the basics that most people take for granted such as healthcare, education and employment, they cannot open bank accounts or buy a house or even get married."

They should be allowed to access healthcare, education and employment. Its disgusting to think that Nation States would disallow any of this. Also opening bank accounts should be allowed. Why not allow them to deal directly with a bank that can get them an account. Why not allow Citizens of Earth to buy houses. And you don't need the Government to get married...

Slaves to the Government is what this article is actually suggesting you all should be....