A decade after Dey fled the hardship of his war-torn home village in Myanmar's Shan state with his ethnic Tai parents, his life is still not free of difficulties.
Children of ethnic Tai workers attend a night class taught by local and foreign volunteers at a construction camp site in Chiang Mai's San Kamphaeng district. Children living as transient migrants often have limited access to education because of poverty. PARITTA WANGKIAT
Dey, 15, is unsure about staying in school because as a stateless person, he will never get a job. And pursuing higher education means harder work for his parents.
His parents earn less than the minimum wage of 300 baht from construction work. Their home is a small bamboo shelter built on unpaved ground in Chiang Mai's San Kamphaeng district. Laundry must be done at the communal space outdoors, shared among more than 200 camp workers.
With an ID card that identifies him as a hilltribe person, he will never be recognised as a Thai citizen.
"I'm not sure if I should quit school now," he said, as he showed photos portraying the plight of his family which he took at a recent workshop in Chiang Mai.
About 20 hilltribe children joined the workshop, held by the Chiang Mai-based non-profit organisation Gabfai, and Partners for the Rights of Children On the Move (ProCOM), and sponsored by the Terre Des Hommes International Federation (TDH). The children are under the care of a local organisation as they were abused or exploited and their cases are now before the courts. They were taught photography skills of capturing images of people similar to them — kids on the move.
One of Dey's photos shows a Tai friend who went blind after his left eye got infected because he could not find proper health services after migrating to Thailand. Others show children living in poverty, in contrast with their hopes for better lives.
According to a report by the NGO Save the Children, millions of children around the world are on the move, with or without parents, for different reasons such as escaping poverty and violence, seeking employment or educational opportunities.
The Global Internally Displaced Person (IDP) database estimates that of the 800,000 to 1.5 million Myanmar migrants in Thailand, 20% are children. The International Labour Organisation's study suggests 42% of migrants in camps on the Thai-Cambodian border are children.
TDH also talked to 76 child migrants, aged between 15 and 18, and found many decided to quit school to earn an income and 75% of them migrated on their own.
"Child migration is poorly understood," said Menno Gibson, TDH's senior programme manager, during a press conference on concern for children on the move in Bangkok last week.
Mr Gibson added about 20-40% of migrants in Southeast Asia were said to be children, and they had little access to basic services.
He pointed out that Asian governments tend to focus on the criminal aspects of migration, enforcing only legal measures against children like arrest and deportation despite the regional dangers of human trafficking and the booming sex trade.
"When children are migrating, without knowing their destination, they are at high risk of facing exploitation or rights violations," said Dararai Ruksasiripong, ProCOM project manager.
Once they are lured into human trafficking or arrested by the authorities, she said, they can't access help.
Thailand ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992 that committed the government to guarantee safety, education and healthcare access for all children. But it has never been enforced.
On July 22, a 15-year-old Cambodian girl and other five undocumented migrants were kidnapped from a shelter where they were waiting to be taken to Bangkok construction sites. They were raped by three Thai gangsters in Sa Kaeo's Aranyaprathet district and then deported the next day.
But the girl was treated as a criminal because of her illegal status, according to the Immigration Act 1979.
"Law enforcers do not see all children as equal, but judge them from their migration status," said Ms Dararai. "The implementation of the Immigration Act for child migrants pushes them to become criminals and prevents them from being protected."
Other related laws such as the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act 2008 can protect child migrants only after they become victims of human traffickers, while the definition of children in the Children Protection Act 2003 is unclear when applied to children with status problems, she said.
She added that a centre to protect children on the move must be set up to reach out to child migrants and coordinate with related organisations and state agencies.
"The officials are concerned about security. But I want them to also be concerned about children's rights," said Meeber Laesoch, Gabfai's project manager, a Tai who was granted Thai citizenship in 2003.