The Hill Area and Community Development Foundation (HADF) is urging the government to expedite the granting of citizenship status to elderly stateless individuals, thereby improving their access to basic healthcare and state welfare schemes.
HADF founder, Tuenjai Deetes, said the foundation organised a discussion in Toet Thai village in Chiang Rai’s Mae Fah Luang district last week, which was attended by the village chief and about 80 elderly stateless individuals from the community — many of whom have lived in Thailand for over 40 years.
Among the elderly who were at the meeting was Jongjue Sae-Huang, 73, who emigrated from Yunnan, China, in 1964, when he was 14, but has yet to receive Thai citizenship.
Another individual, Sang-oung Khamsai, 73, immigrated to Thailand via Mae Sai district in 1974.
“I have worked and built a family here. I would be proud if I had the Thai nationality,” she said.
Stateless individuals who have lived in Thailand for over 40 years are eligible to receive Thai citizenship, but in reality, there are over 110,000 elderly individuals who remain stateless despite multiple attempts to grant them citizenship, Ms Tuenjai said.
In 1994, many stateless individuals in the community were granted alien identification cards. The government at the time said those who had had the card for at least five years would be granted citizenship.
“It wasn’t as simple as they said,” said Ms Tuenjai.
On Oct 29 last year, the cabinet passed yet another resolution to grant stateless individuals who have lived in Thailand for a long time, as well as children born to stateless parents in Thailand, Thai nationality.
However, the process to obtain Thai citizenship isn’t easy for elderly people to follow, and many have had to revise their application multiple times, which has caused delays in granting them citizen status.
Ms Tuenjai urged the government to streamline the process.
“The government should prioritise this group of elderly people, some of whom have lived in Thailand for more than 40 years at this point. Granting them the nationality would help them get access to healthcare and state pension,” said Ms Tuenjai.
According to Ms Tuenjai, Chiang Rai has the highest number of nationality applications, with over 1,000 submitted to the Department of Provincial Administration (DoPA) to date.
At least 400 applications have been approved by the Interior Ministry, while around 900 require additional supporting documents, she said.
About 90 have been interviewed by the provincial committee.