BANGKOK, Sept 19 (TNA) – Two stateless schoolgirls who
won their tickets for an educational tour to Japan have been given assistance
to obtain their travel documents (TD).
Yayee Saechi and Khumporn Tiya of Bokaeo School in the northern Chiang Mai
province are among estimated 50,000 stateless persons in Thailand.
The pair won a top prize of an MCOT’s youth programme
entitling them to go on the Japan trip next month.
Assisted by MCOT staff, they both arrived in Bangkok on
Thursday to apply for their travel documents at the Department of Consular
Affairs.
A group of law students at Thammasat University has offered
legal assistance on Thai citizenship for the two school girls who wish to
pursue a law degree. The university
students said they would begin the process to help the girls get Thai
citizenship after they return from Japan.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner of
Refugees (UNHCR), Thailand ranks third in the world after Myanmar and the Ivory
Coast in terms of the number of stateless people. Thailand has actively joined the UNHCR’s “I
Belong” campaign launched in 2014 with an aim to end stateless status by 2024.
The country granted citizenship to more than 100,000
stateless people over the past years. (TNA)
