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News & Updates

Citizenship Call for All Born on Thai Soil1

June 2005

Human rights defenders and highland people's networks in the North have proposed amending the Citizenship Act to allow hilltribe children born on Thai soil to automatically receive Thai citizenship.

Suraphong Kongjanthuk, deputy chairman of a Law Society Thailand subcommittee on the human rights of indigenous people, said Article 7(3) of the Citizenship Act created major problems. Under the Act, about 900,000 hilltribe people and their children are living as 'stateless people' in Thailand. They cannot access the health-care system or get an education. As a result, many were jobless and forced into informal employment, including prostitution and dealing drugs.

Mr Suraphong and his allies demand the authorities amend Article 7(3) by granting citizenship to the children through their 'right of birth' as they believe that if all the children were granted citizenship, the problems faced by stateless people would eventually be eliminated.

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¹ "Citizenship call for all born on Thai soil." Bangkok Post, 30 June 2005.