Looking across the river towards a better future

Looking across the river towards a better future

A pilot project for migrant children in Mae Sot is giving them greater access to Thai schools and employment opportunities

Karen twins, 14, look across the Moei River to Myanmar where their grandparents escaped from civil war. They now live in Mae Sot district in Tak. (Photos by Paritta Wangkiat)
Karen twins, 14, look across the Moei River to Myanmar where their grandparents escaped from civil war. They now live in Mae Sot district in Tak. (Photos by Paritta Wangkiat)

Crossing the Thailand-Myanmar border in daylight can be an anxious experience for undocumented migrants.

But 13-year-old Karen girl Tata isn't afraid. She believes the Thai school uniform she wears shields her from the suspicion of police and immigration authorities.

At 6.30am on weekdays, she crosses the Moei River -- a natural border between Thailand and Myanmar -- from Karen state to Mae Sot district by boat. Some days, if the water level is low enough, she can walk across.

She then travels on foot another kilometre to Ban Tha-aad School to join her classmates in the singing of the national anthem and raising of the Thai flag at 8am.

Her parents are divorced and Tata lives with her grandparents who moved from the interior of the state to avoid decades of fighting between the Myanmar government and ethnic groups which have displaced over a million people.

"Crossing the border is my opportunity," she told Spectrum.

"I want to learn Thai to be fluent in the language so I can pursue advanced studies in Thailand. One day, I want to be a police officer so I can help people."

EDUCATION FOR SOME

Near the house of Tata's grandparents, clashes between Karen and the Myanmar military still occasionally occur.

The number of incidents declined following the 2013 ceasefire negotiations between the government of former president Thein Sein and armed Karen fighters. Both sides signed a formal ceasefire agreement last year. But only eight out of 15 armed groups participated in the agreement. Despite some Karen military units joining the Myanmar government's Border Guard Force, smuggling of drugs, timber, gemstones and other illegal products goes on.

Tata doesn't pay any attention to the remnants of the ethnic conflict. The Thai government's "Education for All" policy has played a partial role in giving access to education for undocumented migrant children like Tata.

Approved by a Thai cabinet resolution in 1999, the policy allows every child to participate in 15 years of basic education from kindergarten to high school level without paying fees, irrespective of their nationality or legal status.

This is fine in theory, but many schools require undocumented students provide proof of their residency in Thailand to be certain they can gain government funding.

Tata has made it into the Thai education system because her school is sympathetic to the needs of children in her position. But the majority of undocumented migrant children are not as lucky as Tata. According to Save the Children, 74,967 migrant children from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia are currently documented in the Thai education system.

It is estimated that around 300,000 to 400,000 migrant children are living in Thailand. Of those, 34% are in state schools and 5% in migrant learning centres run by NGOs. The majority, 61%, are not in school.

For migrant children in state schools, 30% are enrolled at nursery level, 67% at primary, 3% at lower secondary and less than 1% at high school.

Very few of them will get to university level, mainly because of their family's financial circumstances and their stateless status.

GREY MATTERS

The migrant children's educational woes are compounded by discrimination, poverty, parents' lack of awareness and fear of being arrested by police.

Some Thai schools insist on documents stating a child's legal status before they are enrolled. Private charity schools, including temple schools, can't get state funds for their students if they do not have identity documents which prove they have permanent residency in Thailand.

This means school operators have to take financial responsibility for fees, school materials and meals, which often results in undocumented migrant children being rejected.

At Ban Tha-aad School, administrators encourage unregistered migrant children to stay at the school dormitory instead of crossing the border every day.

If they stay on the Thai side, it helps the school prove to state agencies that the children have permanent residency in Thailand, and increases their eligibility for government funds.

"It's like the school has to do some grey business, but it's better than rejecting these kids," said Anusorn Serasart, deputy school director.

The school has 799 students, from kindergarten to Prathom 6. Only 59 of them are Thai. The rest are undocumented migrants, ethnic or stateless children.

Many commute across the border every day. Last year, school teachers started to visit migrant children's homes on the Myanmar side to see how they live after growing up under the spectre of violence.

UNDER THE ROBE

Jon, 19, believes he will also have more opportunities after he joined Thammawat Witthaya School, or the Don Mun temple school in Mae Sot, which runs classes from nursery to secondary level.

His village is on the Myanmar side half an hour from Moei River.

His parents were internally displaced by fighting and migrated from Myanmar to Thailand. His mother later returned to Myanmar to take care of relatives.

He often crosses the border without travel documents. "My mother sent me here so I can get an education," said Jon, who is still in Prathom 5 after starting school as a teenager.

Tall with a shaved head, he became a novice monk three years ago to comply with the temple rules which require students be ordained.

But Jon doesn't need to pay education fees. His family has had financial problems and can't afford Myanmar school fees, which cost about 3,000 baht per semester plus more for student uniforms, books and education material.

Because he wears saffron robes he is able to travel within Thailand, despite being a stateless person. He has travelled to other provinces to help senior monks in running religious ceremonies, something a person without documents can't do.

He's never been searched by Thai police and sometimes motorbike drivers offer him free rides. He can also get free health care if his senior monks tell hospital staff he stays at the temple.

The only thing that annoys him is that he can't play soccer as novice monks must remain calm in their actions.

Wanchai, 17, is another Myanmar-born novice in Prathom 4 at the school. His father has obtained a Thai ID card and he one day hopes to have Thai citizenship.

His dream is to work in a garage. "Soon I want to leave the monkhood for high school, so I can pursue a career as a car mechanic," he said.

MAE SOT MODEL

Education opportunities for undocumented migrant children improved last year when the Ministry of Interior announced that "non-status" ID cards would be issued to them.

The move follows eight years of delays after the former government of Abhisit Vejjajiva approved a policy to provide ID cards to migrants who prove they have permanent residency in Thailand.

The first digit of their ID card is "0" while Thai ID cards start with "1", to indicate they are a non-Thai citizen allowed to live in the country. However, the card does not give them the same rights and entitlements as Thai citizens.

The non-status ID cards means undocumented migrant children can attend Thai schools which can request government funds to support the students.

Pushed by human rights activists and school operators, Mae Sot is the pilot province, offering non-status ID cards to undocumented migrant students.

At the start of this month, 334 of them received the cards. Another 8,151 in the area are in the process of registering for the cards. The Mae Sot model has been a collaboration between local authorities, school operators and civic groups.

Vepas, 17, a Mathayom 2 student at Ban Mae Tao School, will start an electrical engineering class next month at Mae Sot Technical College after getting his non-status ID card.

He is ethnic Mon and his parents smuggled him into Thailand when he was two years old to flee the war in Myanmar.

"I can go around Mae Sot without being paranoid about being arrested," he said. "Having an ID card gives me a big hope for the future."

His parents are divorced and he now stays with his grandparents. Vepas hopes to open an electrical supplies shop in the next five years. "I feel like I belong here. School treated me equally to others," he said.

HIGHWAY TO PROSPERITY

Mae Sot has been earmarked as one of the government's Special Economic Zones to be established in 10 border provinces. Despite the policy being criticised in some quarters for potential environmental damage, the Mae Sot SEZ is expected to generate a large demand for skilled labourers and provide job opportunities for migrant workers.

The economic uplift in Mae Sot has brought with it a new department store, condominiums and factories.

Mae Sot is a strategically important juncture of the Asian Highway which is intended to speed exports to Europe.

Settapong Srisuwan, director of the Ban Mae Tao School, sees these developments as opportunities for his students.

He recalls his early years living in Mae Sot in the 1990s when migrant children would beg on the street.

But rapid growth in border trade has brought an influx of migrant labourers who have earned enough to improve their children's lives.

The minimum daily wage has risen from 150 baht to 300 baht and many of his former students have found work as service staff in shops and grocery stores or as translators.

Mr Settapong believes people who can speak both Thai and Myanmar are better equipped to run businesses at border markets.

School administrators have recently been invited to join meetings with the Mae Sot Chamber of Commerce and local businesses to discuss building up migrant labour capacity.

"Education here should produce migrant students to answer demand in the border context," he said.

"They may not need a higher level education, but they need skills and support."

PLAY TIME: Children of Muslim Myanmar migrants play in in Mae Sot. Their ancestors resettled in Thailand decades ago.

A BETTER PATH: Two Karen children, 11 and 14, escaped war and have been ordained in Mae Sot.

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