Academics and NGOs have denounced a decision by Thai officials to deport 126 ethnic minority children at Thairath Wittaya 6 School in Ang Thong to their home country Myanmar.
In early June, local complaints were filed to authorities that a large group of ethnic children had enrolled in Thairath Wittaya 6 School, which had only two teachers, one director and one administrative staff member. Many children told an interpreter they were taken from an Akha village on Doi Mae Salong in Chiang Rai province, a hill separating Thailand and Myanmar.
However, all 126 ethnic minority children at Thairath Wittaya 6 School in Ang Thong were sent back to Chiang Rai on Wednesday, where their parents must pick them up and return them to Myanmar. Ang Thong Immigration Police, Ang Thong Social Development and Human Security Provincial Office and other related agencies organised their return.
A source from the Social Development and Human Security Provincial Office in Ang Thong said 30 children had already been sent back to their homes after their parents showed up to pick them up. The remaining children are at the Social Development and Human Security Provincial Office in Chiang Rai, waiting to be returned to Myanmar.
Asst Prof Darunee Paisanpanichkul, deputy dean of the Faculty of Law at Chiang Mai University, told the Bangkok Post that deporting the ethnic minority children is inappropriate and unnecessary since it is lawful for children of migrant workers to receive an education in Thailand despite their statelessness.
She said that the Department Of Provincial Administration should issue ID numbers for stateless children and register them into the education system. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, all children in Thailand are eligible to receive an education despite their ethnicity.
Weera Yooram, director of The Mirror Foundation and Raisom Learning Centre for Ethnic and Immigrant Children, said many ethnic minority children from Myanmar are sent to Thailand under their relatives' care to receive an education.
Mr Weera said the deportation of the children was cruel.
"If [Thai officials] want them to study in Chiang Rai, they should contact local schools for student admission. [Deportation] will only make them give up education," he said.
Wasan Paileeklee, the National Human Rights Commission commissioner, said that complaints had been lodged to the NHRC in June, asking authorities to protect the ethnic minority children's rights to an education.
He said that NHRC had contacted local administrations in Chiang Rai to guarantee the children's safety and opportunity to attend school.
Last week, police pressed charges of bringing and providing shelter to aliens on Thairath Wittaya 6 School's principal, a class teacher, a janitor, and two Pa Mok village chiefs. All of them denied the accusations and will fight the charge.