Santipong Moonfong, chairperson of the Legal Status Network Foundation, put this problem of double standards on the government agencies’ administrative systems. Fixing these problems will systematically improve the ability and efficiency of relevant agencies to process applications and achieve the goal of leaving nobody stateless in Thailand, he said. This results in an overloaded workforce and inevitably long delays in the verification process,” Santipong said. Surapong Kongchantuk, a prominent human-rights lawyer, has also called on the government to urgently tackle the structural roadblocks to eradicating statelessness. He said that if the authorities continued to ignore reform of the nationality verification process, the problem will worsen as the children of these stateless persons will be born without a nationality.

Source: The Nation Bangkok May 20, 2019 18:00 UTC