Mizzima News

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - A regional human rights body has urged Thailand’s government to protect children of migrant parents, from arrest and forced repatriation.

On Wednesday, the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission released an open letter, which was submitted to Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, urging the Thai government to protect the rights of children, who were born in Thailand to illegal immigrant parents, who had been permitted to temporarily reside in the country on a special basis.

The gesture came following a case of the arrest of a three year old boy, Pol or Abdullah, a child of a registered migrant worker, who was permitted to work and temporarily reside in Thailand, while his mother was selling ‘roti’ in a market in Mueang District, Samutprakarn Province.

The boy was detained at Suan Plu immigration center, with a possibility of deportation at 22.00 pm on 27 July, 2009. The boy was allegedly charged with illegal entry into Thailand, under the provisions of Section 54, of the Immigration Act (1979).

Officers of the Human Rights for Development Foundation (HRDF) had coordinated with other rights groups, including the Lawyer Council of Thailand, and sought to petition the Immigration Bureau, to suspend the deportation and release the child immediately. The boy was later released from the immigration detention center on July 28, 2009.

“Despite the boy having been released and returned to the family, related rights groups are concerned that many state agencies did not have accurate and correct understanding about legal facts or the legal personality of Pol and other children sharing the same legal status with him. Thus these children were often arrested, detained and deported,” AHRC said in a statement.

The group noted that in order to prevent any future unlawful arrests and detention of children and to protect every child, who is in the same situation, the following legal opinion and proposal to protect Pol (Abdulla) and every child born on Thai soil to illegal immigrant parents, be mooted.

“An arrest, detention and deportation is a violation of international criminal law, that a person must not be inflicted with a criminal punishment, unless one has committed an act, which the law considers to be an offence,” the letter noted.

The group proposed the prevention of this problem to the government by implementing measures to ensure the rights of such children would be protected, by ensuring that Thailand and its officials must not arrest and deport any child. The authorities should prevent children from being stateless, by certifying their right to reside. The measure could be adopted immediately by recording the name and personal details of the children in the database.

“Under the international obligation as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Thailand is legally bound to protect and promote children through at least four principles of non-discrimination, the best interests of the child, child protection and the right to survival and to be developed to the fullest,” the letter concluded.