Stateless Boy In Thailand Enters Japanese Paperplane Contest

Picture courtesy of ethe


The feel good story of the week. A stateless boy who was given birth to by Burmese refugees in Thailand has been granted special permission to fly to Japan for the upcoming origami paper plane contest held there.


The boy who was the winner of the preliminary rounds in Thailand wasn’t able to leave Thailand before because he wouldn’t be allowed to return as he wasn’t a Thai citizen despite being born in Thailand. But, the Thai prime minister has granted a special permission for the 12 year old boy, Mong Thongdee after local media picked up the story.


But I feel the Thai government is a bit sleazy with issuing a temporary passport. You know what would be an even better PR stunt? Issuing a PERMANENT passport! I guess they just don’t want to open the flood gates for the other several million stateless Burmese that’s currently living in Thailand.


It’s not all bad. The government has ‘promised’ to review their stateless resident problem in the wake of this event. I wonder how much trust can you put in a ‘Thai government promise‘, though.


Anyway, the origami paper plane contest will be held at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, Japan on September 19 and 20. All the best to Mong!

 Loading …

Source:
Mainichi Daily News

No Comments Yet - You can be the first to comment!

Leave a comment