Justificación

Statelessness also arises from political changes which make national policy on granting citizenship unstable. Political instability since 1988 and armed ethnic struggles in Myanmar have resulted in the influx of displaced persons from Myanmar to Thailand. As the Thai government has not ratified the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention, approximately 140,000 displaced people from Myanmar do not have official refugee status. In principle, they are allowed to stay only in the areas called a ‘temporary shelter’ along the Thailand–Myanmar border with the assistance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Refugees without identity proof found outside the camp are considered illegal migrants who are subject to deportation.

In practice, these refugees go to a nearby border town for work on a daily basis. The labour shortage in certain sectors of Thai industries since 1992 has encouraged the Thai state to introduce a new category of registered illegal migrant worker from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia (Pongsawat 2007). This process has become one of the many pull factors that transfers refugees to the status of being illegal migrant workers in the border towns. Since 1992, Thailand has adopted an immigration policy which allows illegal unskilled foreignmigrant workers to work temporarily in Thailand(Chantavanich 2007). A number of their children has been born in Thailand. It was estimated in 2012 that there were approximately 377,000 migrant children under 18 years old, while about 82,000 children were born to unregistered migrant parents (Huguet, Chamratrithirong and Claudia 2012, pp.5–6). Refugees who work outside the camps have to keep their children with them, or send them to a relative in the shelters. These children are considered as stateless persons, who are unable to obtain Thai citizenship. They are allowed to live in a

specific area, while waiting for deportation or any further policy change (Pongsawat 2007).

In 2001, the Thaksin Shinawatra government (2001–2006), made some changes to granting Thai citizenship. The Thai Cabinet allowed individuals who have taken part in a previous government survey and lack identification to stay for one year in Thailand with temporary residency. To apply for Thai citizenship, however, they have to prove that they have been born in Thailand and that one of their parents is Thai. People born in remote and mountainous areas found these requirements very difficult as they lacked documents and other evidence to prove their birthplace and parental relationship. A one year deadline was too short to prove their status. Consequently, many people have been left stateless by being considered merely as illegal migrants. Although a number of refugees has been allowed to live in temporary refugee camps, there are more than two million people who live and work outside the camps illegally. Children born to these people in Thailand are ineligible for citizenship, either in Myanmar or in Thailand (Nyo 2001; Quinnell and Perri 2014).

On Thailand’s Children’s Day2006, a stateless girl from Sop Moei Wittayakom School in Mae Hong Son’s Sop Moei district sent a letter to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra begging for Thai citizenship (Noonoon 2006). The letter was the first step that led Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to declare that Thai citizenship would be granted to two million stateless people living on Thai territory (The Nation 2006). This policy was expected to cover different groups of stateless people, including children studying in Thailand and other migrants, who have been living in the kingdom for at least 10 consecutive years. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was overthrown later in 2006, and processes for obtaining citizenship in Thailand were not continued as the policy was not considered an urgent issue (Polutan 2012).

The lives of stateless young adults were at risk again in 2013. Thailand’s Ministry of Interior planned to release a draft Ministerial Regulation to specify the status and conditions to stay in Thailand for persons who have been born in Thailand but do not have Thai citizenship (Asian Human Rights Commission 2013; Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2017). This draft prescribes the legal status and conditions for residing in Thailand of persons born in Thailand who have not yet acquired Thai citizenship. It would deprive

children born to non-Thai parents of citizenship. Under the draft regulation, anyone born in Thailand, to non-Thai parents would be deemed to have entered and resided in Thailand without permission under the Immigration Act B.E. 2522 (1979). This includes those children and young adults who were born in Thailand and have not left the country, so that they have not entered the country, whether legally or illegally. As a result, stateless children would be forced to leave the country without being able to choose between staying in Thailand or moving to Myanmar. This would be the case even though they were born in Thailand; they have no right to stay (Asian Human Rights Commission 2013).

Fortunately, political unrest in Thailand in 2014 delayed the draft as well as the approval process for citizenship. As one of the informants said, it is very easy to notice that

[c]ompared to the elected government, the Thai government resulting from the Coup sees the request for Thai citizenship as important. When an elected government puts more concentration on economic development, the request for Thai citizenship is always delayed. For my understanding, the delay is because of the inflexible main policy from the central government. I would suggest local government participate in the approval of citizenship (NGO representative, in-depth interview, Chiang Mai province, 10 November 2014).

In 2015, the Royal Thai Government announced that 18,773(about 4.2 per cent) stateless people in Thailand have been granted Thai citizenship in the last three years (Rakkanam 2017). Many of them are hill tribe persons who have ancestral ties to their territory and are ethnically different from the Thai majority. Granting citizenship to hill tribe people is a matter for Thailand’s national security, as these stateless people are seen as being involved in the drug trade and other illegal activities along the borders. A few children of illegal migrants, who fled from Myanmar to Thailand, were granted citizenship in 2015. This granting of citizenship is a result of Thailand’s establishment of a legal framework such as the National Strategy on Administration of Legal Status and Rights of Persons in 2005 and its nationality law reform in 2008 (Batha 2015; Spindler 2016; Jedsadachaiyut and Al-jasem 2016).

In reality, seeking Thai citizenship is fraught with difficulties. According to national security policy 2015–2021, the government is focused on external threats which involve the border management, illegal migrants and stateless people. The government aims to solve the problem of illegal border crossing by non-Thai immigrants and individuals without legal status (stateless people) (Office of the National Security Council 2015,

pp.13–25). The government’s database shows that Thailand has a total registered population of 438,821 stateless people which is very different from the number of de facto

stateless persons estimated by the UNHCR (506,197 persons) (Jedsadachaiyut and Al-jasem 2016; Kneebone 2017). It is unlikely that the statelessness situation in Thailand will be solved by 2024, in line with the UNHCR’s campaign to end statelessness by 2024 (Bloom 2014).

The process of applying for Thai citizenship is very difficult. Some people have to wait more than 10 years. Thailand has more than ten thousand stateless children. They are born in Thailand or along Thailand’s border. These children and young adults are living in Thailand. They are studying in Thai schools. They have grown up as Thais, but their rights are limited because they cannot choose to be born. There are many limitations on their lives. Not being granted Thai citizenship only because of their non-Thai parents, is really inhumane (NGO representative, Mae Sot, Tak province, in-depth interview, 10 September 2014).