Stateless in Thailand

The recent cave rescue of the soccer players in Northern Thailand has revealed more than expected. The finding and subsequent rescue of the players and coach was extraordinary. The depth of the cave coupled with the arduous journey in and out is only matched by the depth of the problems regarding statelessness many encounter. At least three of the players and the coach carry the title, "stateless". This cave rescue event attracted worldwide attention and brought to the forefront one of the main issues of Thailand.

A person who is "stateless" is someone with no nationality. That is, they are not a citizen of any country and therefore do not enjoy the benefits of either their country of origin or their present country in which they reside.

The Thailand Project reports that hundreds of  thousands of families and individuals have fled, crossing the border into Northern Thailand. They are denied political refugee status, but allowed to live within tight "districts of constraint" with very few rights. They have no legal bond with any country and are therefore stateless. In Thailand, this means they are denied the right to vote, travel, own property, work legally or have access to education and healthcare. 

This stateless status drives poverty and illiteracy and makes the individual subject to trafficking and exploitation. Many of these stateless individuals have found themselves exploited for sex or labor. The risk factors are present for the stateless soccer players. Now that they are celebrities, circumstances may change for them. Time will tell. However, for the thousands of stateless families and individuals that have migrated into Thailand because of the country's porous borders, celebrity status is not realistic.

Young stateless girls become primary targets for the traffickers. The Thai government estimates between 20 and 30 thousand children younger than 18 are in the commercial sex industry in Thailand alone. This is a major problem in Thailand as lives are destroyed and there is no hope for any future. So often parents misunderstand offers made to them from strangers to take their children to provide for them a better life. The better life is for the trafficker and not the child or the family.

Activist who provide a voice for the stateless say the process to citizen is extremely difficult at best, and mostly impossible. The individuals who live in rural Thailand have no support from their country of origin and are considered outsiders by the local authorities. Add to their poverty the problem of illiteracy among the population and you find bleak outcomes.

How is this problem solved? No one has come to the forefront to provide a solution. There has to be a pathway to citizenship for the stateless population, or at least a permit to allow attendance in school. This is only a portion of what needs to change. At core of the problem is racism. While the official stance is that everyone can attend school, your ethnicity determines much of your future in this part of the world as it does in many. Legislation can be passed. Parliament can be lobbied. Laws can even be changed. However, racism cannot be legislated out of the heart of man. Therefore, we remain at an impasse. No education. No country. No hope of escaping exploitation.

Racism. We see it in every part of the world although it manifests itself in various ways. However, the outcome is very similar. Racism says one group is better than the other. Racism says one group has more privilege than the other. Perpetuated by the dominate ethnic group, racism forces the target group to become subordinate to the majority culture. This puts the minority culture in harms way on a variety of levels including being at risk of sexual and labor exploitation. To address human trafficking we have address racism.