700 stateless people living in 26 cities, survey shows

Nearly 700 stateless people are living in 26 major cities nationwide including Bangkok, according to a new study that excludes rural border areas.

Anak Pitakthanin, a researcher at the Mekong Studies Centre of Chulalongkorn University’s Institute of Asian Studies, released the results this week.

This belief a long-held claim by the government that stateless people only inhabit border areas, Mr Anak said. The survey was conducted by the centre and the National Health Security Office (NHSO).

He said stateless people in urban areas can be divided into three groups: those who were abandoned at birth, those whose parents failed to register their birth, and those who were removed from the civil registration database system because they failed to keep in touch with their families for so long they were presumed missing or dead.

The centre and a network of civic groups have been trying to help them by taking them to get their nationality verified, register their Thai citizenship and apply for ID cards, Mr Anak said.

A systematic approach is needed to address the problem of stateless people instead of handling them on a case-by-case basis, he added.

He suggested that undocumented people who lack ID cards be allowed to register.

Finding and surveying stateless people nationwide is a challenge because they are reluctant to come forward and reveal themselves unless they are sick or in need of state assistance and welfare, Mr Anak said.

The centre may have to work with agencies such as the Interior Ministry, the Social Development and Human Right Ministry, and the National Security Council to obtain information regarding the precise number of stateless people and their condition, he said.

He said most stateless people are impoverished and measures must be taken to ensure they have access to health care benefits and other basic welfare to ease the financial burden on various health care units.

In several areas, these units shoulder the cost when stateless people seek health services there. If they were properly registered, however, budgets could be properly allocated, Mr Anak said.

Meanwhile, the latest round of verifying Thai citizenship for 170 stateless residents in the far South was recently held in Pattani.

Residents who are legally stateless do not possess citizenship cards. Many such people turned up to have their identity and nationality verified at the provincial Islamic committee office in Pattani this week. They came from the four provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla. The majority, or 80 people, hailed from Narathiwat.

They were mostly accompanied by their parents or next of kin, who provided DNA samples to help confirm their common bloodlines, officials said.

After their nationalities have been verified, they will be added to the civil registration database system and given ID cards.

The latest survey published in the Royal Gazette this year shows there are up to 13,905 stateless people in five southern provinces.

The Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre has allocated a budget of up to 50 million baht for this latest round of verification, or about 5,000 baht per head, it said.

Some became stateless because their parents failed to register them at birth.