{"id":3218,"date":"2025-10-12T13:10:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T13:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/?p=3218"},"modified":"2025-10-12T20:42:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T20:42:04","slug":"to-compare-the-treatment-of-thai-on-myanmar-migrants-and-myanmars-treatment-on-rohingyas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/2025\/10\/12\/to-compare-the-treatment-of-thai-on-myanmar-migrants-and-myanmars-treatment-on-rohingyas\/","title":{"rendered":"To compare the treatment of Thai on Myanmar migrants and Myanmar’s treatment on Rohingyas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This is one of the news that I have read in almost once in a decade at least for 3-4 times already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Radio<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Thailand to grant citizenship to nearly 500,000 people<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The aim is to improve national security and support the economy, officials said.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Kiana Duncan, Pimuk Rakkanam for RFA and RFA Burmese<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2024.11.15<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thailand will grant citizenship to nearly 500,000 long-term residents, most of them members of ethnic minorities, with the aim of improving national security and the economy, officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While immigration is a hot-button political issue in many countries, in Thailand, where its remote border lands have for centuries been populated by a patchwork of \u201chill tribe\u201d communities, the plan has stirred little, if any, serious opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under a streamlined process agreed by the cabinet in late October, provincial authorities will be able to grant citizenship, cutting down on red tape and saving time, said government spokesman Jirayu Houngsub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will bolster national security, enable those Thai citizens to access medical plans and support the economic drive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New citizens will gain the right to work freely, buy property, open bank accounts, get domestic rates for tuition fees and apply for university scholarships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A retired government official familiar with the issue said security worries were at the root of the decision, and a fear stateless people were more likely to get mixed up in \u201cillicit\u201d activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey must gain Thai citizenship so the government knows who they are, and they can have a legal career and contribute to society,\u201d said the former senior Thai official who declined to be identified commenting on the sensitive issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecognizing them helps Thailand earn their loyalty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While who precisely will qualify for citizenship has yet to be announced, a member of a parliamentary committee on ethnicities involved in the plan told Radio Free Asia that the focus was long-term members of ethnic minorities and tribal people, such as members of the Hmong ethnic group, as well as those settling from Myanmar and Laos, and long-term migrants from Cambodia and Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
A Myanmar migrant worker passes the time on his balcony in a workers’ dormitory in Bangkok, May 22, 2021. (Soe Zeya Tun\/Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Former members of the Chinese nationalist Kuomintang party, who fled from China after the 1949 communist victory there and settled in Thailand, will also be granted citizenship, said Surapong Kongchantuk, secretary of the house committee on the ethnicities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn a nutshell, the eligible people are ethnic and tribal people who have been surveyed and registered for a long time,\u201d Surapong told RFA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe new system will take effect after the Ministry of Interior declares a ministerial act in around the next two months \u2013 a New Year gift,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Path to opportunity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Surapong said those eligible would not include \u201cnew migrants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He declined to go into details of exactly who he was referring to but applicants must be able prove they arrived in Thailand before 1999 and remained here for at least 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means no path to citizenship for the many thousands of people from Myanmar who have fled from their country\u2019s latest round of bloody turmoil and repression since a 2021 military takeover there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also not clear if about 100,000 members of the Karen ethnic group from Myanmar living in border camps after fleeing fighting beginning in the 1980s, will be eligible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But many people from Myanmar are hopeful after years of insecurity, temporary permits and endless scrutiny by the authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have to submit information about where I\u2019m going, what I\u2019m doing and who I\u2019m going to meet,\u201d said one man from Myanmar, who asked to be identified as Maung Maung, who fled repression in his homeland and has been living precariously in Thailand for 27 years, most recently with a 10-year temporary permit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Maung Maung, citizenship would open up a new world, not so much for him, but for his children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy wife and I aren\u2019t at the age to study anymore but for my son and daughter, if they want a better education in Chiang Mai or Bangkok, as a citizen they would have the opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thailand\u2019s Minister of Social Development and Human Security Varawut Silpa-archa said 130,000 stateless children born in Thailand would get citizenship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health benefits<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citizenship would also mean people can also get access to health insurance and the state health system, and relieve an immense strain on hospitals in border regions that operate under a humanitarian oath to provide care to anyone who needs it.<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHealth insurance is really really important, especially for elderly people,\u201d said Brahm Press, the director of the Migrant Assistance Program in Thailand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMigrants aren\u2019t allowed to work after age 55, which means they\u2019re not really entitled to any health insurance either, but that\u2019s the age when you really start to need it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Myanmar
Myanmar migrant worker families pass their time under barricade lockdown at Samut Sakhon Shrimp in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, Jan. 26, 2021. (SOE ZEYA TUN\/Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While there has been no public outcry about the prospect of nearly half a million new citizens, there has been some grumbling among online posters, with some questioning if all of the likely applicants were \u201creally Thai.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Bangkok-based businessman who identified himself as Somchai told RFA he agreed that hill-tribe people who had been in Thailand for many years should get citizenship: \u201cThey feel Thai even though they\u2019re living in remote mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Somchai said he\u2019d then draw the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI disapprove of granting people from Myanmar, or other nationals, the right to resettle here. That isn\u2019t right. What benefits do Thai people get out of this? Why is the government thinking about that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edited by Taejun Kang.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khet Mar contributed to this report.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is one of the news that I have read in almost once in a decade at least for 3-4 times already. Thailand to grant citizenship to nearly 500,000 people The aim is to improve national security and support the economy, officials said. By Kiana Duncan, Pimuk Rakkanam for RFA and RFA Burmese 2024.11.15 Thailand will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6,2,11,10,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-history","category-international-news","category-myanmar-muslims-history","category-news","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3220,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3218\/revisions\/3220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}