They were granted Thai nationality decades ago. Yet for nearly 40 years, they have lived as second-class citizens -- invisible, powerless, and stripped of basic rights -- all because of government red tape.
On Oct 29, 2024, cabinet finally took the right step. Based on a proposal from the National Security Council, the government approved a procedure to fast-track nationality and legal status for 483,626 people whose lives have been stuck in limbo for far too long.
Of this group, about 340,101 people are permanent residents. Their eligibility for citizenship has already been verified. Another 143,525 are their children born in Thailand and entitled to Thai citizenship. Yet they are still treated as outsiders in the only country they have ever known due to the absence of a ministerial regulation to give final legal effect to their citizenship.
Despite cabinet's decision to speed up the process, things remain stalled. Right-wing nationalists, ultra-conservative voices, and online trolls have whipped up opposition through false claims and fearmongering. While families wait, those behind a wave of online attacks have tried to stir public fear and anger against the policy, labelling it a "Thai nationality giveaway" to aliens. They've twisted the facts.
In fact, these are permanent residents and stateless people already listed in the national registry as eligible for citizenship. Their personal data is on record, their fingerprints in the system. Newcomers and fraudsters have no way to slip through. Yet the lies keep spreading.
Thailand has a long tradition of integrating ethnic minorities. For centuries, the country welcomed Chinese migrants who fled war and famine. Their parents were given permanent residency. Their children, born here, became Thai citizens by birthright. Today, their descendants are part of the backbone of this country, an important human resource for national development.
While Chinese migrants and their children became Thai citizens, marginalised ethnic minorities in remote areas -- many of whom are indigenous to the land -- were neglected, even after they became legally entitled to citizenship.
Administrations came and went, but the promises stayed broken. When the Pheu Thai-led coalition government ordered the Interior Ministry in the October cabinet resolution to issue a ministerial regulation within 60 days, it was meant to be the final step needed to allow these people to receive citizenship.
The goal: complete the process by the end of 2024, a gift to mark the new year and a new life for hundreds of thousands.
The draft regulation was ready in December. But it hit a dead end because Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul did not sign it. Without his signature, the regulation cannot be published in the Royal Gazette, cannot take legal effect, and cannot bring justice to the people waiting.
Weeks turned into months. Frustration grew. On March 29, 2025, more than 3,000 members of the Northern Farmers Federation and the Assembly of Communities Living with Forests marched to Chiang Mai's City Hall. One of their demands: for the ministerial regulation to be signed and long-overdue citizenship granted.
Deputy Prime Minister Prasert Chandraruangthong, from the Pheu Thai Party, signed a memorandum agreeing on the steps to move forward. On April 1, he formally brought the issue to cabinet and urged immediate action from the Interior Ministry. Yet today, more than six months later, nothing has happened. This is no longer a bureaucratic failure; it is political negligence. Mr Anutin's refusal to act is an assault on the rights of hundreds of thousands of people who have waited decades for justice.
Each day of delay, people suffer. They are denied access to universal healthcare and other state welfare. Students cannot get scholarships. Workers cannot find decent jobs. Elderly residents live without social security. They are locked out of rights they should have held generations ago. Justice delayed is justice denied. And in this case, the denial is deliberate.
Mr Anutin must sign the ministerial regulation approving long-overdue citizenship for this group, then send it for publication in the Royal Gazette. Only then will it become legally effective, and the process of granting citizenship can begin. No more excuses. No more hiding behind nationalist fearmongering or political games. The lives of nearly half a million people are not bargaining chips.
This is not about party politics; it is about basic fairness and respect for human dignity. No one should have to wait 40 years to be seen. No child should grow up stateless in the country of their birth. And no public official should have the power to quietly derail the lives of half a million people. Grant their long-overdue citizenship, now.