Jump to content

EU commits Bt80m to Unicef for protection of migrant and stateless children in Thailand


webfact

Recommended Posts

EU commits Bt80m to Unicef for protection of migrant and stateless children in Thailand

By The Nation

 

06607948f73b52cdadf0c131f635a169.jpeg

Hugh Delaney, Officer in Charge for UNICEF Deputy Representative for Thailand

 

The European Union has committed more than Bt80 million to Unicef over the next three years to support efforts to strengthen policies and practice for the protection of migrant and stateless children in Thailand, Unicef said on Tuesday.

 

The EU, Unicef and the Thai government also announced on Monday their partnership for the protection of the rights of children affected by migration in the Kingdom, according to a statement from the UN agency.

 

Nearly 100 representatives from ministries, civil-society organisations, the private sector, the EU and international organisations had gathered at the partnership launch event in Bangkok on Monday.

 

Although Thailand currently has policies and legislation in place to provide education, healthcare and child-protection services to all children, including those from migrant communities, a large number of migrant children still face multiple challenges in accessing affordable and quality service, the Unicef statement said.

 

Migrant children are still being left out for many reasons, including social stigma, poverty, frequent movement, and inadequate service coverage, as well as a lack of awareness and knowledge about how to access available services, it added.

 

“All children, regardless of their migration status, must be protected. We have to ensure their access to education, healthcare and sanitation, social and legal services, and psychological support,” said Pirkka Tapiola, ambassador of the European Union to Thailand.

 

According to estimates from the International Organisation for Migration, there were some 300,000 to 400,000 child migrants in Thailand as of 2018, many of them undocumented. 

 

In addition, about 145,000 stateless children are registered with the Thai government, according to the Interior Ministry.

 

“Thailand already has progressive and generous policies, especially in opening its essential services to all children in the country, whether they are Thai nationals, undocumented migrants or stateless children,” said Thomas Davin, representative for Unicef Thailand.

 

The partnership between the EU and Unicef will help strengthen the national child-protection systems by training professionals and government authorities to identify, refer and assist vulnerable migrant children to ensure their access to social assistance, legal aid, counselling and birth registration.

 

The programme also aims to end the detention of children for migration-related reasons, while strengthening alternative care options, such as foster care and kinship care for those who are deprived of parental care or are unaccompanied.

 

thenation_logo.jpg

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-03-13
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, webfact said:

will help strengthen the national child-protection systems by training professionals and government authorities to identify, refer and assist vulnerable migrant children

will not help, primitive countries do not even acknowledge this is a problem

Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

will not help, primitive countries do not even acknowledge this is a problem

The Thai Government acknowledges the problem and have taken steps to end statelessness by 2024 , quite ignorant of you  to suggest that Thailand doesnt acknowledge the problem and also to call Thailand "primitive"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, sanemax said:

The Thai Government acknowledges the problem and have taken steps to end statelessness by 2024 , quite ignorant of you  to suggest that Thailand doesnt acknowledge the problem and also to call Thailand "primitive"

Would you care to elaborate? They may acknowledge the problem and may have taken steps but I think they are more likely to be backwards not forward steps. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Nip said:

Would you care to elaborate? They may acknowledge the problem and may have taken steps but I think they are more likely to be backwards not forward steps. 

No, they are currently in the process of issuing  Thai I.D to stateless Children , which began last year and the aim is to get it completed by 2024 , previously stateless kids were unable to receive I.D 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, sanemax said:

No, they are currently in the process of issuing  Thai I.D to stateless Children , which began last year and the aim is to get it completed by 2024 , previously stateless kids were unable to receive I.D 

The stateless kids who got trapped in a cave have their Thai ID cards now. If any more children here can make the international news and have the world see their stateless predicament, I'm sure the government will issue them ID cards as well. 

 

2024. hey...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, sanemax said:

No, they are currently in the process of issuing  Thai I.D to stateless Children , which began last year and the aim is to get it completed by 2024 , previously stateless kids were unable to receive I.D 

That is 5 years. So a 7 year old stateless "hilltribe child" with no ID ( and there are several in the school in which I teach) will have to wait until he or she is 12 before being able to access any government provided health care or education; unless his or her parents can muster sufficient "influence" to expedite the process!

 

Hardly a gutbusting effort is it; in truth they are not really doing anything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I AGREE, that NOW Thailand is doing something, but a caring Buddhist Country should have been doing this years ago, instead of sweeping it under the carpet.

Too often still, the underprivileged are ignored as it is not a high concern in many places, that is an indictment of Thailand , its culture and Thainess. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Khun Paul said:

I AGREE, that NOW Thailand is doing something, but a caring Buddhist Country should have been doing this years ago, instead of sweeping it under the carpet.

Too often still, the underprivileged are ignored as it is not a high concern in many places, that is an indictment of Thailand , its culture and Thainess. 

The problem is that previously , people couldnt prove that they were born in Thailand because they were usually born at home with no birth certificate or records of their birth and so they couldnt show that they were entitled to Thai I.D.

   Many people that could prove that they were born in Thailand were given Thai I.D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, mikebell said:

Right lads we need a committee or two set up on how to divide this - first off how much goes to the children?

Not so fast. Now let me see, we will need new laptops for all those involved, iPads for field work (pencils and notebooks are so C20 and we are in Thailand 4.0 now you know); there will have to be some fact finding visits - lucky they have those new resort hotels up in Chiang Rai. Windcheater jackets with logos, can't do without them. Support staff should be no problem, quite a few of you have sons and daughters graduating from University this year, and of course they have lots of friends.

 

What's that? You met an Akha chap who wants his daughter to go to school? Hmm, how much can he pay?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Nip said:

Would you care to elaborate? They may acknowledge the problem and may have taken steps but I think they are more likely to be backwards not forward steps. 

The military government has actually been quite proactive in changing the laws.

 

As Sanemax said, stateless children (but not only) in the hilltribe regions now have an active way path to gain Thai citizenship. It isn't perfect, but it is fairly well publicized for the target market. Still, lots of education is still needed, not only for people who need the ID cards but for officials.

 

Citizenship laws were also changed back in about 2008 which allowed people born here up to 1992 and normally resident since, to gain Thai citizenship, regardless of what their parents nationality was. This was one of the first steps which was taken to help right that issue.

 

I'm also researching other paths, our nanny is from Karen state, and she has a daughter here. As I understand it, the daughter born here in Thailand will be eligible for Thai citizenship upon completing high school here.

 

None of the above is perfect, but Thailand has a large statelessness population and I doubt the UN would be contributing this money unless there were real efforts going on.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, samran said:

The military government has actually been quite proactive in changing the laws.

 

As Sanemax said, stateless children (but not only) in the hilltribe regions now have an active way path to gain Thai citizenship. It isn't perfect, but it is fairly well publicized for the target market. Still, lots of education is still needed, not only for people who need the ID cards but for officials.

 

Citizenship laws were also changed back in about 2008 which allowed people born here up to 1992 and normally resident since, to gain Thai citizenship, regardless of what their parents nationality was. This was one of the first steps which was taken to help right that issue.

 

I'm also researching other paths, our nanny is from Karen state, and she has a daughter here. As I understand it, the daughter born here in Thailand will be eligible for Thai citizenship upon completing high school here.

 

None of the above is perfect, but Thailand has a large statelessness population and I doubt the UN would be contributing this money unless there were real efforts going on.

 

 

From what I understand , for a stateless kid in Thailand to get Thai citizenship , they would have to have been born in Thailand , spent their whole life here , been to school and have no affiliation with any other Country , i.e, their Parents being stateless as well 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, sanemax said:

From what I understand , for a stateless kid in Thailand to get Thai citizenship , they would have to have been born in Thailand , spent their whole life here , been to school and have no affiliation with any other Country , i.e, their Parents being stateless as well 

Appreciate you knowledge.

 

Certainly her daughter is all of those things, except her parents have burmese passports now. It wasn't the case when she was born however when for a time her parents were without documents and generally unable to get them.

 

That has since changed with the Burmese agreeing to nationality verification as part of the migrant labour programme.

 

If you have any links on this topic in Thai or English, I'd be grateful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like I'm going to have to work and pay tax until I'm 70 now to fund this sort of crap that's throwing money down the drain with corruption.its an Asian problem and Europe should be sorting itself out and Asia doing the same. I'm 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, happy chappie said:

Looks like I'm going to have to work and pay tax until I'm 70 now to fund this sort of crap that's throwing money down the drain with corruption.its an Asian problem and Europe should be sorting itself out and Asia doing the same. I'm 

Monies like this are held in trust by the UN for use. They don't normally get disbursed to central governments and have proper oversight.

 

Thailand has provided shelter for waves of refugees over half a century from China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanamar. We are talking millions and millions of people. So they need a bit of help from time to time on this. There are probably a million un-documented migrants in Thailand as we speak.

 

Anyway, whats wrong with spending money on this stuff? Do you want young under aged children exploited cause they don't have the proper papers - ending up in prostitution and lord knows what else?

 

The government has changed the laws, so that is one thing. But it is still another to process all of them through the system.

 

Most people would rather these kids grow up to be legal and contributing members of society. Better that then rocking up on a boat as stateless refugees I would have thought in the west after they figure out they can't live a life in Thailand.

 

This is the cheapest option by far. Lord help if you didn't want to help them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.




×
×
  • Create New...