VZCZCXRO0601
PP RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHCHI #0192/01 3540939
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 190939Z DEC 08
FM AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0924
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0053
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 0047
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 1001

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 CHIANG MAI 000192 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM SMIG PREF PGOV PREL KDEM SNAR KCRM KWMN TH
BM 
SUBJECT: MINORITY HILL TRIBES STILL PLAGUED BY STATELESSNESS, THOUGH 
TRENDS ARE ENCOURAGING 
 
REF: CHIANG MAI 127 (Citizenship Hardships) 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000192  001.2 OF 006 
 
 
------------------------------- 
Summary and Comment 
------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Roughly half of Thailand's estimated 900,000 hill tribe 
minorities lack citizenship.  This statelessness contributes 
significantly to their disadvantaged status.  In recent years 
the Royal Thai Government (RTG) has made strides to improve 
citizenship eligibility for highlanders, including passing two 
significant new laws in 2008.  Nonetheless, the onus is still on 
hill tribe people to produce proof of birth, residency, and/or 
nationality, via a process that is legally and bureaucratically 
complex, and fraught with corruption and discrimination.  The 
RTG, UN agencies and NGOs are working together to overcome these 
obstacles and build on recent momentum.  However, funding 
resources are limited for all of these actors.  Post will 
continue its outreach on hill tribe citizenship issues, with the 
aim of identifying effective ways the USG could contribute via 
means such as Democracy Small Grants and public diplomacy 
initiatives. 
 
¶2.  Comment:  On hill tribe statelessness, Thailand's glass is 
roughly half full and half empty.  Yet it is fuller than a 
decade ago and slowly continues to fill.  A major dilemma for 
the RTG, however, is the growing number of highland minorities 
migrating from Burma in recent years - and the accompanying 
concern that liberalization of citizenship laws to benefit 
resident hill tribes could become a beacon attracting new 
migrants from Burma.   End Summary and Comment. 
 
---------------------------- 
The Hills Have Tribes 
---------------------------- 
 
¶3.  Thailand's "hill tribes" are ethno-linguistic minority 
groups living primarily in remote small villages dotted 
throughout the country's northern and western highlands.  Most 
originated in Tibet and southern China, and have migrated to 
Thailand via Burma and Laos within the past 150 years. 
However, some hill tribe migration continues to this day due to 
political strife in eastern Burma (see para 24).  As a result of 
the mobility and remoteness of the lifestyle, it is difficult to 
determine a precise figure for Thailand's hill tribe population. 
 In fact, the population figure varies between different Thai 
agencies.  The best consensus figure post has been able to 
determine is just under 900,000, about 1.4% of the country's 
total population.  Of this hill tribe populace, nearly 70% is 
concentrated in the northern provinces of Chiang Mai, Chiang 
Rai, and Nan. 
 
¶4.  The extent to which Thailand's hill tribes, or 
"highlanders," live a disadvantaged and marginalized life has 
been widely documented by the State Department, UN agencies, 
NGOs and scholars.  There is broad consensus that lack of 
citizenship among a large portion of highlanders - roughly half, 
by most estimates - is the single greatest factor contributing 
to their disadvantaged status.  This cable will focus on 
statelessness among Thailand's hill tribes by: 
 
--  tracing the legal and political background and current state 
of play; 
 
--  identifying obstacles highlanders face in obtaining 
citizenship; 
 
--  summarizing the societal disadvantages faced by stateless 
persons; and 
 
--  looking ahead to efforts by the RTG, NGOs, and international 
community aimed at addressing the problem of hill tribe 
statelessness. 
 
------------------------- 
A Growing Identity 
------------------------- 
 
¶5.  Before the 1950s, the Thai government largely overlooked the 
presence of highland people in the country's remote mountainous 
regions.  The hill tribes were not included in the first 
national census in 1956.  But political upheavals that decade in 
China, Laos and Burma resulted in an influx of migrants to the 
hills of northern Thailand.  By 1959, the RTG set up a national 
committee to deal with development for hill tribe people, then 
seen largely as a national security threat involving guerilla 
movements, opium production, and deforestation. 
 
¶6.  According to UNESCO, the RTG conducted its first census of 
the highland population in 1969-70; it identified 120,000 hill 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000192  002.2 OF 006 
 
 
tribe people.  A second, more comprehensive census followed in 
1985; it recorded 580,000 highlanders.  Following this survey, 
the government began issuing household registration certificates 
along with a highland (non-citizen) identity card.  By the early 
1990s, the Interior Ministry had issued highland identity cards 
to nearly 250,000 hill tribe people, and conferred Thai 
citizenship on another 182,000. 
 
¶7.  In 1999, the RTG conducted its most comprehensive highland 
population survey to date.  This survey recorded a total hill 
tribe population of nearly 874,000 people, of whom over 496,000 
were already registered as Thai citizens.  The remaining 378,000 
highlanders were placed in various categories such as "eligible 
for Thai citizenship," "eligible for permanent residency," or 
undetermined.  Of these 378,000 non-citizens, post understands 
that a number of them have since received citizenship, but 
neither government nor NGO sources have been able to provide a 
precise figure.  To date, no complete census data tracks the 
number of hill tribe residents or their citizenship status. 
 
------------------------------------- 
RTG Takes Positive Steps . . . 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  In the years since the 1999 survey, the RTG has taken steps 
to improve citizenship eligibility for highlanders, including 
passing two significant new laws in 2008.  Generally, each step 
has addressed a different sub-set of the total non-citizen 
population, or a specific portion of the overall process, rather 
than offering a comprehensive solution.  Yet taken together, the 
trend is encouraging, though the onus still lies with the 
applicant to produce proof of residency, nationality, and/or 
birth, which can be highly problematic as described in paras 
14-17. 
 
¶9.  The first positive step was the RTG's August 2000 
declaration that all children born in Thailand of hill tribe 
parents who entered Thailand before October 4, 1985 were 
eligible for citizenship regardless of their parents' legal 
status at the time they were born.  The parents themselves 
(about 60,000 persons per RTG figures) were declared eligible 
for legal migrant status.  The main beneficiaries of this 
decision were ethnic minorities from Burma, including hill tribe 
groups as well as the non-hill tribe Shan, who had fled into 
Thailand in the 1970s and 1980s. 
 
¶10.  In 2001 the RTG established an independent National Human 
Rights Commission; its subcommittee on ethnic minorities has 
been active in calling for full citizenship rights for all those 
born in Thailand.  In 2005 the government designated the 
Interior Ministry and National Security Council as the lead 
agencies on citizenship matters, and tasked them with: 
surveying the highland population; developing an approach that 
would that would give stateless persons some form of legal 
status immediately pending a final determination; decentralizing 
citizenship authorization; and including NGOs and academics in 
the decision-making process. 
 
¶11.  The latest positive step was Thailand's adoption of the 
Nationality Act of 2008 and the Civil Registration Act of 2008, 
both of which superseded earlier laws.  Their full impact has 
yet to be assessed since the Interior Ministry has yet to issue 
complete implementing regulations. 
 
¶12.  The Nationality Act of 2008 has four significant aspects; 
it: 
 
--  stipulates that children born in Thailand before February 
26,1992 to parents who entered Thailand illegally AFTER October 
4, 1985 are eligible to apply for Thai citizenship.  This 
broadens the RTG's August 2000 declaration noted in para nine. 
The fate of children born in Thailand after February 1992 to 
illegal alien parents is less clear, however.  The new law 
permits them to remain in Thailand (i.e., not treated as 
illegals), with an opportunity to "develop their legal personal 
status as circumstances permit." 
 
--  repeals a 1972 decree that revoked the citizenship of a 
large number of highlanders on national security grounds 
involving drug-trafficking, deforestation, and communist 
insurgency.  For those whose citizenship was revoked, as well as 
their children who were consequently rendered ineligible for 
citizenship, the new law reinstates their citizenship.  RTG and 
NGO sources report that over 6,000 highlanders have already 
obtained citizenship in this manner, with NGOs saying the number 
could approach 100,000 once implementation is in full swing. 
 
--  allows stateless persons who unwittingly waived their right 
to claim Thai citizenship to reclaim their eligibility.  In the 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000192  003.2 OF 006 
 
 
previous decade, many stateless highlanders who were born in 
Thailand and may have been able to prove citizenship eligibility 
substantially weakened their claim to citizenship by registering 
as "migrant workers."  They did so in order to order to gain 
coverage under the government's 30-baht universal health care 
program, which is otherwise unavailable to stateless persons. 
 
--  grants citizenship eligibility to previously ineligible 
individuals :  children born in Thailand to a Thai father and 
alien mother; children born out of wedlock to a Thai mother; and 
alien husbands of Thai wives who wish to naturalize. 
 
¶13.  The 2008 Civil Registration Act is significant for 
stipulating that every child born in Thailand will receive an 
official birth certificate, regardless of the parents' status, 
beginning from the law's entry into force on August 23, 2008. 
Similarly, local registrars shall issue a household registration 
for all persons domiciled in Thailand regardless of nationality. 
 These documents are important for citizenship applicants to 
navigate the complicated legal regime described in para 15. 
 
------------------------------------ 
. . . But Old Habits Die Hard 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶14.  Despite these positive steps, obstacles to obtaining 
citizenship remain for several hundred thousand hill tribe 
people.  UNESCO notes that, whereas in China, Laos and Vietnam 
ethnic minorities are born citizens of those countries, in 
Thailand citizenship for highlanders is an acquired status. 
Moreover, such status may be obtained only through a process 
that is still legally and bureaucratically complex, and fraught 
with corruption and discrimination. 
 
¶15.  In June 2007, the Vital Voices Global Partnership issued a 
report on the relationship between the lack of citizenship and 
human trafficking in Thailand, and the challenges of obtaining 
proof of citizenship (see 
http://www.vitalvoices.org/files/docs/Vital%2 0Voices%20-%20 
Stateless%20and%20Vulnerable%20to%20Human%20T rafficking%20in%20Th 
ailand.pdf).  The report provides useful detail on the various 
obstacles faced by the hill tribes in obtaining Thai 
citizenship, including: 
 
--  A complicated legal regime.  On the one hand, a child born 
to a Thai citizen or alien permanent resident can become a 
citizen.  On the other hand, eligibility for citizenship by 
birth does not automatically translate into proof of 
citizenship.  Proof must be presented to the appropriate local 
officials for verification, which is no easy task given legal 
complexities.  Parents of a newborn must first obtain a delivery 
certificate, and then notify the birth to the district registrar 
within 15 days.  Only after these two steps are completed may 
the registrar then issue a birth registration certificate - and 
then only to children of citizens or legal permanent residents. 
In the absence of a required document, a witness's testimony is 
needed.  In the case of children without proof of birth 
certificate or witness, a DNA test is required.  Obtaining 
citizenship by naturalization is also complex and rigorous; it 
includes a five-year domicile requirement, approval by the 
Interior Minister, and royal sanction by the King. 
 
--  Practical problems of data, communication, and 
transportation.  The 2007 Vital Voices report (VV report) 
describes how incomplete, contradictory census data, as well as 
inconsistent decisions by officials regarding status and 
identification of individuals, has hindered obtaining 
citizenship for many highlanders.  Another obstacle is the 
language barrier between Thai officials and non-Thai speaking 
hill tribe people, which contributes to census and registration 
errors.  Also, lack of transportation to and from remote 
highland areas prevents many newborns from obtaining either the 
delivery certificate or the birth notification required for the 
birth registration certificate - without which citizenship 
cannot be obtained. 
 
--  Corruption by local officials is another obstacle hill 
tribes face in obtaining Thai citizenship.  As the VV report 
notes, the fact that citizenship applications must go through 
local officials gives them absolute authority and has made 
corruption rife at the village, sub-district, and district 
levels.  This assertion was supported by recent conversations we 
had with two Amcits who are long-time residents of northern 
Thailand (Chiang Rai) and active in hill tribe development 
efforts.  They said most highlanders lack birth certificates and 
must rely on their village and/or district head to certify their 
birth and eligibility for citizenship.  Many of these officials 
are corrupt and demand bribes of 500 to 2,000 baht (USD 15 to 
60) to certify birth and/or residency.  Staff at a Chiang Mai 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000192  004.2 OF 006 
 
 
shelter for young hill tribe women cited even higher bribe 
amounts (5,000 to 15,000 baht, or USD 150 to 450) charged by 
village and sub-district heads for services that are supposed to 
be free, such as official signatures, house registration, 
fingerprinting and id photos, and citizenship card issuance.  A 
UN agency source cautions of district officials who feign 
ignorance of the process, withhold information, or omit dates on 
received applications in attempts to extort bribe payments. 
 
¶16.  Our Chiang Rai sources claimed many village heads do not 
want highlanders in their area to get citizenship, because then 
they lose "control" of them.  Village heads can make money off 
"their" stateless hill tribe people via trafficking their labor 
into illegal logging, drug-running, or the sex trade.  As a 
result, many village heads equate citizenship with "losing their 
assets" (Note:  our contacts were unable to quantify the extent 
of this practice).  Moreover, some officials use the prospect of 
citizenship as a tool to manipulate stateless highlanders' 
behavior.  For instance, local officials have in some cases 
withheld citizenship from an entire village as a means to force 
its residents to give up the drug trade.  The unfortunate result 
is that an entire village can have its citizenship withheld even 
if just a few of its members engage in drug trafficking.  The 
means for doing so can be subtle, e.g. bureaucratic 
foot-dragging or questioning the bona fides of birth witnesses. 
 
¶17.  Our Chiang Rai sources, and the VV report, described 
several other obstacles to obtaining citizenship: 
 
--  AIDS.  Many hill tribe children are AIDS orphans, whose 
parents died when AIDS peaked in Thailand a decade ago.  This 
complicates the process of documenting birth records and 
citizenship eligibility. 
 
--  Cautious officials.   Local officials tend to be 
risk-averse, and hesitate to accept citizenship applications for 
fear of harsh career penalties for any mistake in granting an 
incorrect status.  Moreover, a UN agency source claims there is 
a history of reprisals by officials against individuals who come 
forward publicly to report shortcomings in the registration 
process. 
 
--  Lack of knowledge.  The complexities of both the legal 
regime and the application process means that responsible 
officials often lack understanding of their obligations, and 
highlanders (many of whom do not speak or read Thai) often lack 
knowledge of their citizenship rights. 
 
--  Complex appeals process.  If the district official rejects a 
citizenship application, few appellate options exist.  The 
complicated process is outlined in the VV report, which 
concludes that the appeals process is fraught with obstacles, 
including:  lack of knowledge of the right to appeal, complexity 
of the process, a one-month statute of limitations, broad 
discretion for government officials, and the money and time 
required to undertake an appeal. 
 
--  Too many cooks?  Another complexity, though not directly 
related to the citizenship issue, is the sheer number of 
government entities with a role in hill tribe issues.  According 
to a 2002 study by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 
Thailand has 11 government ministries involved in hill area 
development, which in turn have 31 departments and 168 agencies 
with either a mandate or a commitment to support hill tribe 
communities. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
How Statelessness Marginalizes Highlanders 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶18.  Thailand's hill tribes live a marginalized life to begin 
with given their agrarian lifestyle, remote location, and low 
education level.  That several hundred thousand highlanders lack 
Thai citizenship significantly exacerbates their disadvantaged 
status.  According to UNESCO, lack of citizenship or legal 
status is the single greatest risk factor for hill tribe people 
to be trafficked or otherwise exploited.  Without legal status, 
they are considered "illegal aliens" in their own country, 
subject to arrest, deportation, and extortion.  Highlanders who 
lack citizenship cannot vote, hold office, organize into unions, 
or own/obtain title to land, and have difficulty accessing 
credit from banks.  Stateless highlanders are also barred from 
state welfare services such as universal health care (the 
30-baht plan).  They are geographically restricted to living and 
working in certain areas, usually their immediate home district. 
 This confines them to the meager opportunities for work in the 
locality, unless special permission is granted by the district 
head.  As a result, they are often employed in informal labor 
arrangements that are highly exploitative.  And because of the 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000192  005.2 OF 006 
 
 
travel restrictions, the further they travel away from their 
communities, the more vulnerable they become to shakedowns by 
corrupt police who use their lack of travel passes as a pretext 
for extortion. 
 
¶19.  Our Amcit Chiang Rai contacts elaborated on these 
disadvantages.  Stateless highlanders not only cannot leave 
their province of residence, but also cannot get drivers 
licenses, even for motorcycles.  This is problematic for getting 
to school or a job site.  Non-citizen highlanders try to get 
around this by having the vehicle purchase issued under the name 
of a Thai acquaintance, which often requires an under-the-table 
payment. 
 
¶20.  Lack of citizenship blocks access to most private sector 
jobs, our contacts noted, since private businesses that employ 
non-citizens or unregistered migrants are subject to penalties 
for harboring illegals.  Nor are stateless highlanders eligible 
for Civil Service jobs, and thus cannot enter the local 
bureaucracy to serve their own people.  They also cannot serve 
in the Thai military.  Ironically, this makes them ineligible 
for many other types of jobs because they can produce neither a 
document showing they have completed their mandatory year of 
military service, nor a document showing they are legally 
exempted from such service. 
 
¶21.  Statelessness also hinders educational advancement.  On the 
positive side, undocumented hill tribe children are no longer 
barred from public schools; a compulsory education law mandates 
attendance through age 15 for all.  Without citizenship, 
however, they do not receive an official diploma upon 
graduation, and are thus mostly blocked from higher education 
and restricted in employment options.  Staff at a Chiang Mai 
shelter for young hill tribe women spoke of one star student who 
completed secondary school but then hit a dead-end in her job 
search; she gave up and returned to her village.  Our Chiang Rai 
contacts told us of a stateless hill triber who completed all 
required coursework for a PhD at Chiang Mai University,  but was 
not awarded a degree due to lack of citizenship. 
 
¶22.  Despite improved access to public schools, enrollment among 
hill tribe students remains low, and declines with age.  In 
2006, UNESCO conducted a Highland Peoples Survey of the impact 
of statelessness by polling 12,000 households in nearly 200 
border villages in three northern provinces (Chiang Mai, Chiang 
Rai, Mae Hong Son).  Of the almost 64,000 individuals surveyed, 
38% had no Thai citizenship and 54% had no official birth 
registration.  The survey found that for every 100 non-citizens, 
only 22 would enter lower primary school, and only eight would 
advance to upper primary.  The drop-off continued at higher 
levels:  only five would enter lower secondary, three would 
enter upper secondary, and fewer than two would pursue higher 
education. 
 
¶23.  With these disadvantages stacked against them, our Chiang 
Rai sources conclude, many stateless highlanders are relegated 
to a permanent life in the underclass - mostly on the fringes of 
rural society, and some who migrate to cities and get involved 
in the drug trade, sex trade, illegal labor, and petty crime. 
Yet many manage to struggle through to the fringes of "normal" 
life.  They find or form networks of supporters, and devise ways 
to commute into cities for work or school while avoiding fines 
for violating movement or licensing restrictions. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
Continuous Influx Presents Dilemmas 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶24.  A major dilemma for Thailand is the continuing inflow of 
hill tribe migrants.  Former Senator Tuenjai Deetes, who heads 
the Hill Area Development Foundation (HADF) in Chiang Rai, 
expressed concern to us about the increasing number of 
highlanders migrating from Burma in the last five years (as well 
as the non-hill tribe Shan).  This recent influx has created 
overcrowding in hill tribe areas, forcing many 
longer-established highlanders to sell their land and migrate 
into cities.  Overpopulation of highland villages outstrips the 
village headman's ability to administer effectively, and also 
fosters corruption - the headman can demand bribes in order to 
permit new migrants to stay and receive services. 
 
¶25.  Deetes pointed out another RTG dilemma:  liberalization of 
citizenship laws to benefit resident highlanders could become a 
beacon to attract new migrants from Burma.  Also, the RTG is 
wary of automatically granting citizenship to all who are born 
in Thailand, because new migrants keep flocking in and having 
children. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000192  006.2 OF 006 
 
 
-------- 
To Do List for RTG, NGOs, International Community 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
-------- 
 
¶26.  On balance, the RTG has made reasonably good progress in 
the last 25 years in increasing the number of hill tribe people 
holding citizenship, despite the significant obstacles still 
standing in the way.  The 2008 Nationality Act and Civil 
Registration Act, if implemented effectively, will generate 
further progress.  UN agencies and the numerous NGOs actively 
promoting hill tribe citizenship aim to build on this momentum 
and have identified several follow-up steps for doing so: 
 
--  Both highlanders and responsible officials need to be better 
informed about their rights and obligations under a citizenship 
regime that is legally and administratively complex.  UNICEF and 
the Interior Ministry are planning a national workshop with NGOs 
to explain the new laws and their implementation to local 
officials and highlander community groups.  The VV report makes 
similar recommendations, urging the international community to 
provide funding to the RTG and NGOs to support public awareness 
campaigns and training of local officials (as well as hospital 
staff and midwives) regarding the birth registration and 
citizenship process.  Better awareness and training would 
empower community leaders, NGOs, and state agencies to assist 
applicants in applying for citizenship.  As former Senator 
Deetes told us, all parties need to understand that registration 
and/or citizenship is a right, and should not be subject to 
bribe payments.  Her organization, as well as UNESCO, is each 
doing radio outreach in minority languages on the new 2008 laws. 
 
--  A data base of persons and linkage of data for verification 
purposes would significantly help in identifying eligible 
applicants for citizenship.  An updated survey of undocumented 
highlanders is also needed.  Chiang Mai's Payap University has 
had success with a pilot "People's Data Base" in select (albeit 
small) areas to record information on stateless persons.  UNESCO 
will soon embark on an update of its 2006 Highland Peoples 
Survey, this time expanding it to five provinces from three. 
 
--  Greater manpower and expertise is needed in hill tribe areas 
to process citizenship claims.  UNICEF reports that the Interior 
Ministry's Department of Provincial Administration seeks to 
develop a cadre of civil registration volunteers.  Under the 
supervision of the district registrar, one volunteer in each 
village would be trained as a community liaison to ensure birth 
registration requirements are followed correctly.  Also, Payap 
University's Law Faculty recently launched a new course on 
citizenship issues for 50 students, who will deploy to hill 
tribe villages to "train the trainers" on legal and procedural 
matters.  The VV report recommends the RTG create mobile units 
to register births in remote areas. 
 
--  UN agencies and NGOs are urging the RTG to transfer birth 
registration responsibilities from the Interior Ministry to the 
Public Health Ministry, given the latter's success in outreach 
to highlanders to persuade them to give birth in public 
facilities.  The two ministries reportedly agree with this in 
principle and have discussed pilot testing in select provinces, 
but are concerned about human resource constraints at the Health 
Ministry. 
 
--  UNESCO and UNICEF have recently developed a Citizenship 
Manual that will soon be available on line.  The manual is 
intended to be a standardized "how to" guide for citizenship 
applications among hill tribe communities.  (Note:  Post expects 
to receive a CD version of the English translation by year's 
end).  Similarly, the Interior Ministry is reportedly developing 
campaign leaflets explaining the 2008 laws and compiling 
citizenship laws for district registrars.  In both cases, the 
aim is to standardize information across government and civil 
society on registration and citizenship procedures. 
 
--  NGOs are calling for legislation to ease the naturalization 
process for legal resident aliens and give them the same rights 
as natural-born citizens. 
 
¶27.  The multiple, mostly coordinated efforts by the RTG, UN 
agencies, NGOs, and international community to improve 
citizenship prospects for eligible highlanders are encouraging. 
Significant obstacles remain, however, and funding resources are 
limited for all of the actors.  Post will continue its outreach 
to these actors, with the aim of identifying effective ways for 
the USG to contribute via a variety of means at our disposal, 
including Democracy Small Grants as well as public diplomacy 
initiatives. 
 
¶28.  This cable was coordinated with Embassy Bangkok. 
MORROW