Organisations affiliated with Shan refugee camps confirmed to Frontier that the number of 10-year Thai ID cards issued to stateless ethnic Shan children who are studying in Thai schools along the Myanmar-Thai border this year is significantly higher than previous years.

“This will make the children’s future better,” Sai Laeng, a spokesperson of the Shan State Refugee Committee-Thai Border, told Frontier on December 5.

“Thai officers mainly focus on the children in the Thai education system. This year Thai policy seemed to change and Thai authorities are giving IDs to all the kids in Thai schools,” said Sai Wijit, president of the administrative committee in Koung Jor refugee camp.

The UN refugee agency (UNCHR) estimates that 10 million people are stateless worldwide, with Thailand hosting one of the largest stateless populations, mostly from Myanmar. In 2020, the interior ministry said there were over 539,000 stateless people living in Thailand, including nearly 300,000 children, the majority of which are in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces.

UNHCR said from 2011 to 2019, around 23,000 registered stateless people acquired Thai citizenship – an important step forward, but only around 4 percent of the total recognised stateless population. In 2018, the ministries of education and the interior said they aimed to grant citizenship to over 90,000 stateless school children in order to give them access to education and “other social services”.