Thai Gov’t Issues 10-year Residence Certificate to Burma Migrant Children

The Thai government is issuing a 10-year residence certificate to Burma migrant children who were born in Thailand. As a result, the district municipal offices in Thailand are packed with applicants since the end of February and up to March 5, according to the Joint Action Committee for Burma Affairs (JACBA)’s chairman U Moe Gyo.

“This is the first time the 10-year residence certificates are issued to the children of migrant families who were actually born in Thailand. Whether the children’s parents have IDs or not, they can apply for the residence certificates if they can show the birth registers. Only 20 [residence cards] can be issued per day due to many applicants. The [certificates] will be issued without any time limit until they run out,” he told Karen News.

Among the migrant children, orphans born in Thailand can apply to become Thai residents and they will receive free education as well as free healthcare just as Thai children, U Moe Gyo continued.

Thirty-nine children from the SAW Foundation in Thai border town Mae Sot have received documents for residence certificates and free education from the Thai government since end of February to 2nd March.

“The children will receive basic human rights such as education and health for their future after the Thai government issues the documents to these children with uncertain future. This is a very good task [carried out by the Thai government],” said a Burma migrant worker who applied for the document.

Over 400,000 Myanmar migrant workers live in nine districts under Tak Province in Thailand and tens of thousands of children from these migrant families have been born in Thailand.

The Thai government carried out a similar program of issuing documents for the children from Thai schools and Burma migrant schools under Thai schools in the past. This is the first time the certificates have been issued for the children of Myanmar migrant workers.