Lawyers Council takes up deportation case of undocumented children
The Lawyers Council of Thailand announced on Monday that it would provide help to the 126 undocumented Myanmar children who were sent to Ang Thong for education and then deported to Myanmar via the permanent border checkpoint in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province.
The 126 children were attending the Thairath Wittaya School 6 in Ang Thong’s Pa Mok District.
All except five of them have already been deported. The five remaining children aged 6-14 years are still in limbo, as their parents have yet to show up to collect them, said the council president Wichien Chubthaisong.
“54 of these children have been studying at the school for some time, while the rest were newcomers,” he said. “Sending them back in the middle of a school semester is a violation of the human right to education, not to mention unethical.”
Wichien said the council would also file charges against five executives of Thairath Wittaya School 6 for allowing the deportation in violation of human rights principles.
School director Kanlaya Thasom told reporters on Monday that she was shocked the council would be filing lawsuits against her, as she “already did everything according to the regulations” (of the Education Ministry).
She said she had contacted the Office of the Basic Education Commission (OBEC) and Ministry of Social Development and Human Security to help the children.
She suspected ‘a miscommunication’ was responsible for the agencies eventually advocating for the repatriation to Myanmar of foreign students without citizenship registration documents.
The OBEC has suspended Kanlaya from duty and prohibited her from entering the school premises and contacting the children.
