Thread: Thai Govt is urged to let children attend school

HUMAN RIGHTS / ILLEGAL MIGRANTS
Govt is urged to let children attend school
PENCHAN CHAROENSUTHIPAN

Human Rights advocates yesterday urged the government to allow children born to illegal migrant workers to study in local schools, instead of being deported.

The Lawyers Council of Thailand human rights panel said it believed that 90% of these children would grow up and work in Thailand for a long period. The government should allow them to register in the school system, which is considered a basic right, human rights advocate Surapong Kongchantuk said.

Migrant children should be able to use student cards as identification documents, and no longer face arrest and deportation. Under current laws, children of illegal foreign workers must be deported to their home countries.

Sompong Sakaew, director of the Labour Rights Promotion Network, said a group of 23 children is being detained because their names are not listed in foreign worker registration documents.

He said the Lawyers Council recommendation was in line with a 2005 cabinet resolution which agrees to provide education to children without registration documents, including those born to foreign workers.

The recommendation is also backed by the National Legislative Assembly, which has drafted a new Nationality Bill to ease restrictions on immigrants wanting to apply for Thai nationality.

The cabinet initially rejected the draft for fear it would have an impact on national security.

The government's point of view is contrary to that of human rights advocates, who believe that education for the children would help to prevent social problems.

''If we allow these kids to be uneducated, national security will be affected,'' said Pornchai Tantivitayaphitak, a member of a research team on education accessibility among alien children, supported by Chulalongkorn University.

Mr Pornchai's research team estimates that there are between 120,000 and 160,000 foreign children in Thailand with no access to education.

Meanwhile, 15 labour rights advocacy groups petitioned the government and the International Labour Organisation, urging the ''discriminatory'' legislation imposed in five southern provinces be abolished. They called for the withdrawal of the provincial decree on migrant workers that was imposed on migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia and Laos working in Phuket, Surat Thani, Ranong, Rayong and Phangnga.

The decree bans migrant workers from using mobile phones, riding motorcycles or leaving their work sites between 8am and 6pm, and also bans gatherings of more than five people.

Bangkok Post