Rights agency suggests ‘Trat solution’ for displaced people

Tuenjai, a former senator and activist working with hill tribes, said the NHRC suggested the solution to manage displaced people in Trat province and using it to handle the complex issue of displaced people across the country. 

The Trat model includes: establishing a district committee to screen petitions from displaced people, setting up a provincial committee gathering members from the district with the most displaced people, arranging a one-stop-service event to help register displaced people, and seeking cooperation from nearby universities to help prepare documents before sending them to the district committee. 

“I aim to use the solution that we find in Trat as a role model to tackle displaced people across the country. A temporary team would be set up to speed up the process for registering those people,” she said.

The solution was suggested and adopted during a conference on Wednesday held between the commission, Trat municipal and provincial administration officials.

About 6,000 people living in Trat province are unregistered. The displaced people could be divided into many categories, such as stateless, rootless and displaced. Most of them are found in Klong Yai, Muang and Bo Rai districts. 

Bo Rai district chief Panuwat Puttagasorn said undocumented people in his district were migrants from across the country who came to Bo Rai about 50 years ago and mostly worked in the gem mine. However, the mine was closed 20 years ago and most chose to stay in the district. Yet they had never been surveyed or registered.

“People who live in Bo Rai district moved from across the country, while some were migrants from Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. Therefore, it is hard to define who should be registered when everyone is mixed together,” he said. 

Noi Buoythong, 70, moved to tambon Bor Ploy in Bo Rai when she was just 14. She was born in Kanchanaburi’s Thong Pha Phum district, but went to dredge for gems in Bor Ploy in a bid to have a better life. She was considered one of the “rootless” people, as she was unable to provide documents about her birth and could not get support from the government. 

Noi told The Nation she has palsy in her right arm, so she can’t do much work like before and most of her income comes from her son. “It would be great, if I could have a citizen identification card. Then I could seek medical support and an elderly pension,” she said. 

Sitichai Bouaykeaw, 39, is a descendant of migrant workers who moved from Kanchanaburi to Bo Ploy to mine for gems. He told The Nation his father and mother met in this town, where he was born and raised. He also has no birth documents, as he was delivered by a midwife, not in a hospital. 

Instead of attending school, Sitichai worked as a gem miner with his family, so there were no school or work records about him. After the gem mine closed 20 years ago, his work has been limited to contract building – houses in Bor Ploy, as he is “rootless” person, unable to work in other areas. 

“I want an identification card, so I can travel to other districts and do contracting elsewhere. While, I can only make Bt10,000 a month, I have a family – two daughters and wife. So, if I was a Thai citizen, I could save some money and have some medical benefits as well,” he said.