UNHCR commends Thai Cabinet’s landmark resolution to end statelessness

THAILAND: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency mandated to reduce statelessness, welcomes Thailand’s   groundbreaking step toward ending statelessness. The Thai Cabinet has approved an  accelerated pathway to permanent residency and  nationality for nearly half a million stateless people who have been living in and contributing to Thailand for generations.

Under a proposal approved in principle by the Royal Thai Government on 29 October 2024, some 335,000 longtime residents of Thailand and members of officially recognized ethnic minorities will be eligible for permanent residence and over 142,000 of their     children who are born in Thailand will be eligible for Thai nationality. Those granted permanent residence can apply for Thai nationality after five years.

“This will be historic,” said Tammi Sharpe, UNHCR’s Representative in Thailand. “It would be the most dramatic reduction of statelessness the world has ever seen.”

The 484,000 people targeted by the approved proposal are among nearly 600,000 individuals registered as stateless in Thailand, meaning that they are not legally recognized as nationals of any country. But their ties to Thailand are stronger than to any other country, and stateless people have for decades made substantial contributions to the economy and cultural diversity of Thailand.

The approved proposal will help unlock the full potential of their contribution to Thailand, as those granted nationality and permanent residence will be able to move freely within Thailand to seek educational and employment opportunities and meet Thailand’s dynamic labour needs. Without such status, stateless people in Thailand face challenges travelling to other provinces for  employment opportunities.

Under the approved proposal, processing times for nationality and permanent residence will be shortened, and the criteria streamlined. Applicants must demonstrate loyalty to Thailand, good conduct—including a clear criminal record—and not have any affiliation or evidence of nationality with any other country. The vast majority of the target population are individuals whose residence in Thailand was documented by Thai authorities between 1984 and 2011.

They include the Moken people, a nomadic seafaring community recognized by Thailand as an ethnic minority after the devastation they suffered in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. For generations, the Moken have lived off the sea in Thai waters and on remote Thai islands, but many have never registered their identities with the Thai authorities. This week, UNHCR supported the Royal Thai Government’s first ever one-stop service mobile registration exercise for the Moken on Phayam Island in the southern Thai province of Ranong, a joint initiative by the Ministries of Interior and Justice.

It is just one example of UNHCR’s ongoing support for Thailand’s efforts to reduce statelessness. In addition to financial support, UNHCR provides technical expertise to the authorities and NGOs working to reduce statelessness throughout Thailand, including by helping stateless communities prepare applications for nationality and ensuring stateless people have access to basic rights .

Thailand continues to be a global and regional leader in the eradication of statelessness. It was among the founding members of the Global Alliance to End Statelessness launched by UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi in Geneva on 15 October and pledged at the 2023 Global Refugee Forum to resolve statelessness, with priority given to children born in Thailand. Thailand has also been an active participant in “Get Every One in the Picture”, the campaign by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to make 2015-2024 the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Decade for the region.