RTG ADVANCES ON HILL TRIBES CITIZENSHIP

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BANGKOK 001286

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV TH
SUBJECT: RTG ADVANCES ON HILL TRIBES CITIZENSHIP



1. (SBU) SUMMARY. On January 2, 2006, the RTG granted Thai
citizenship or permanent residency to nearly 14,000
individuals. Members of hill tribes accounted for 6,678 of
this number. This action is part of the MOI,s effort to
clear the backlog of thousands of applications, and
accelerate the application process. While this is a positive
development, the RTG still has a ways to go toward ensuring
that those who are entitled to Thai nationality are able to
fully exercise their rights as citizens. Advocacy groups
agree that the MOI is making a concerted effort, but note
that implementation at the district and local level continues
to be problematic. Post,s DRL-funded grant to the Hill
Tribe Citizenship Project continues to play a significant
role in increasing public awareness and assisting hill tribes
and RTG officials to remedy this long-standing problem. END
SUMMARY.

THE NUMBERS


2. (U) On 02 January 2006, the MOI approved the citizenship
applications of 13,827 persons. According to the MOI, this
is the largest number of approvals ever granted at one time.
The majority of approved applicants were from hill tribes.
The MOI broke down the approvals as follows: Highlanders )
6,363; Burmese ) 3,175; Vietnamese ) 2,279; Chinese
(ex-Nationalists and Haw) ) 978; Nepalese ) 704; Tribal
People ) 287; Tai Lue ) 28; and Malaysian (ex-Communists)
) 13. (NOTE: MOI confirms that the categories Highlander,
Tribal People, and Tai Lue all represent hill tribe peoples.
End Note.)


3. (U) Not all of these applicants received automatic
citizenship. The 4,272 primary applicants who have spent
most of their lives in Thailand received permanent resident
status as they are considered migrants. They will be able to
apply for naturalization after a five-year residency period.
The Thai-born children and grandchildren of these primary
applicants (9,555 in total) were granted citizenship
immediately.

MOI PICKING UP THE PACE


4. (SBU) MOI,s Minority Affairs Section informed Post that
the large number of approvals was a result of MOI's effort to
clear the backlog of pending citizenship applications. MOI
officials and advocacy groups believe the number of pending
applications to be approximately 100,000. While there is
general agreement that the central government is making an
honest effort to speed up the process, implementation at the
provincial and local levels remains inconsistent and
corruption remains a significant roadblock in certain
districts. The complicated process involves moving an
application back and forth through multiple layers of
government and police bureaucracy. The applicant is often
required to pay bribes to officials at each step in the
process in order to move their petition forward.
Nevertheless, thanks to the extra push from government
authorities the accelerated pace of approvals is expected to
continue.


5. (U) Post,s DRL-funded Hill Tribe Citizenship Project is
playing an important role in the process. The project
develops educational materials for hill tribe villagers
informing them of their legal rights and works directly with
villagers and local officials to simplify the process, track
specific cases, and empower villagers to take full advantage
of their rights. Project organizers have created a database
of villagers and their biographic information to help move
cases through the system more quickly. While much work
remains to be done, the education campaign and continued
vigilance of the project organizers has led to decreased
corruption in some localities.


6. (SBU) COMMENT: Though the backlog of applications is
still large, there is an attempt by the RTG to speed the
process and find a solution to this lingering problem.
Unfortunately, this does not appear to be a true effort at
streamlining the often corrupt process of moving applications
forward. Instead, it is simply a top-down campaign from the
MOI to make the system work faster. Nevertheless, though the
informal costs to applicants may remain high, they (and the
advocacy groups that support them) are beginning to see signs
for hope. At the same time, those awaiting adjudication of
their applications, remain in a type of stateless limbo.
They are denied the right to vote, buy land, obtain legal
employment, or travel freely and, as such; they are
vulnerable to human traffickers with unscrupulous offers of
employment.


7. (SBU) Just as we begin to see progress, the highly
successful DRL-funded grant to the Hill Tribe Citizenship
Project is running out of funds. The program is viewed
favorably not only by hill tribe communities and advocacy
groups, but also by local officials who have benefited from
the program's educational activities/materials. The Hill
Tribe Citizenship Program is currently seeking additional
funds to continue its activities and expand its capacity to
monitor applications as they move through the system. END
COMMENT
BOYCE