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Thousands of Stateless Children to Get Temporary ID Cards in Thailand

Thousands of stateless children at schools in Chiang Rai are to receive temporary identity cards - a vital document that can be used to prove their Thai citizenship, a member of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) said.

Tuenjai Deetes, chairman of the NLA's committee on solving the problem of stateless people living in Thailand, said the students in Chiang Rai have been chosen for a pilot project aimed at granting 13-digit ID cards to about 33,000 stateless students across the country as a gift on the occasion of Children's Day.

The project is part of a plan by the Interior Ministry to give away 200,000 identification cards to stateless people - most of them ethnic minorities living along the Thai-Burmese border.

According to Ms. Tuenjai, students with the temporary ID cards will be entitled to education in Thailand and will be given permission to travel to study at education outlets in other provinces for up to six years.

Interior Ministry officials have called on the government to issue guidelines for dealing with the issue, she added. She said officials will be sent to survey and register the birth of every child born in Thailand, Thai or alien, to prevent any ambiguity concerning their status. In addition, she urged the government to allow communities to have a role in verifying stateless people.

She said the ministry should encourage villages under the project to set up committees to help the state verify the background of stateless people. Without that help, illegal labourers and human traffickers would exploit the loopholes, she said.

Amporn Prasit, an official at the ministry's Civil Registration Division, confirmed a survey was underway to classify stateless people before the 13-digit temporary ID cards were handed over.

The project, to be carried out between March and June 2007, follows a cabinet resolution issued on Januar 18, 2005 by the then Thaksin Shinawatra government that instructed the Interior Ministry to give ID cards to stateless people who can prove they were born of Thai parents or had stayed in Thailand over a certain period of time.

Adapted from: "Thousands of stateless children to get temporary ID cards." Bangkok Post. 15 January 2007. (Source: UNIAP Thailand)