The news reports about the struggle of two young stateless students who are racing against time to get a chance to contest academic events in the US are familiar to many.
The US embassy denied a visa to one of the girls, Namphung Panya, 18, who has qualified as a contestant to a science competition in Phoenix, Arizona, next week despite having entered a naturalisation process which is about to grant her Thai citizenship.
The other girl, Yonladee Phiyatat, 17, who was selected as a member of a team to participate in the Genius Olympiad in the US has even bleaker prospects as she still cannot leave her hometown in Ranong to process travel documents. Born in Thailand and living in Chiang Rai province, near the Myanmar border, Ms Namphung, a straight-A student and freshman at Chiang Mai University's Faculty of Associated Medical Sciences, is classified as a stateless person because her parents are from the Thai Yai ethnic group.
According to cabinet's December 2016 resolution, Ms Namphung has the right to apply for Thai nationality. She submitted her citizenship application in 2017 and used the travel documents for aliens issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to apply for a US visa on May 1. She also submitted various documents from agencies including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Human Rights Commission that guarantee she is in the process of obtaining Thai nationality, only to be turned down by the US embassy.
The US embassy's stiff visa policy is alarming. Human rights advocate Surapong Kongchantuk said that previously the embassy would grant visas to stateless persons, with documents issued by Thai authorities, to travel and join educational competitions or receive awards on US soil. While the US embassy deserves to be condemned for its visa policy change, the Thai authorities involved in the naturalisation process cannot escape criticism. The events which have taken place raise doubts whether the naturalisation process for the two girls was unjustifiably hindered by bureaucratic red tape.
The girls' experience reminds many of the case of Mong Thongdee, a formerly ethnic Shan migrant boy who in 2009 almost missed a chance to join a paper plane competition in Japan. Despite a promise of Thai citizenship by the Thai state, he had to wait for almost 10 years for it to come true after public interest in his case faded.
His dreams of becoming a Thai came true last year only after the Wild Boars saga gained global interest. The state was forced to accelerate efforts to help four Wild Boars who, with statelessness status, had difficulty travelling outside their hometown in Chiang Rai.
The Thai state deserves credit in recent years for softening its stance and improving its policy regarding naturalisation of this marginalised group, but as attested by the case of Mr Mong, the Wild Boars footballers, Ms Namphung and Ms Yonladee, as well as many others who may be suffering in silence, implementation is still an issue. If Ms Namphung and Ms Yonladee are eligible to become Thai, there is no reason for the authorities to drag their feet. Those involved must do whatever they can to provide them with the necessary identification documents so they can join the contest.
