Ethnic groups, stateless ask NRC to consider their rights
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The network of local ethnic and indigenous people on Monday submitted a petition to National Reform Council (NRC), asking the council to consider reforming their rights.
NRC President Tienchay Keeranant received the petition, which asks for reforms that take into account the rights of local ethnic and indigenous people in the country.
With many tribesmen without citizenship, basic rights are overlooked, among them shelter and medical treatment.
In addition, the tourism industry has pushed many villagers out of their ancestral lands. They have thus petitioned the NRC to address the problem of statelessness, to ensure equal protection under the law as well as protecting them from land encroachment.
In a separate event, Tienchay also received a petition from the network for the reinstatement of Thai citizenship, which has urged the government to reform the country’s policy in dealing with stateless individuals and the process of granting citizenship to exiled Thais.
Because certain ethnic Thais live in exile between country borders, they have never been granted Thai citizenship.
The government has 30,000 documented cases of such individuals and only 2,000 of them have been granted citizenship so far. The network has urged the Ministry of the Interior to spare no efforts expediting the remaining cases, especially in the provinces of Prachuap Khiri Khan, Ranong, Rayong, Chumphon and Trat.
