There are currently more than 480,000 stateless people in Thailand. 90,000 of those people live in Chiang Rai— the highest concentration in the country.
At The Freedom Story, we protect children from trafficking and exploitation by tackling the root causes of vulnerability, including a lack of legal status. Helping a child gain citizenship can significantly decrease their likelihood of becoming a victim of trafficking or exploitaiton.
How Does Statelessness Impact Trafficking Vulnerability?
Being stateless means increased trafficking vulnerability due to:
- Being unable to open a bank account or take out loans
- Travel restrictions that limit job or education opportunities
- Limited access to social services, including healthcare or education assistance
- Limited access to work, and only being eligible for low-paying jobs
For many of our stateless students, even though they were born in Thailand, they lack citizenship in any country. This can happen due to a lack of official documentation at the time of birth, belonging to an ethnic minority that has lived in the hills for centuries, or migration from unstable conditions in places like Myanmar.
Whatever the cause, every child deserves to live with full access to human rights.
How The Freedom Story Helps Children Become Citizens
Through The Freedom Chapter, our scholarship program, we build stable support systems around a child that reduce their trafficking vulnerabilities and position them to protect themselves and others from exploitation.
This includes access to scholarships that cover school fees and essentials, trafficking-prevention training, mentorship, and family support through home visits and caregiver workshops.
For our stateless children, our team also works to help them on the arduous, often confusing path toward citizenship. We help each stateless student in our program acquire paperwork, navigate the system, receive legal counsel, understand their rights, and follow each step of the process.
In the last year, our team helped five stateless students become Thai citizens, and one became a permanent resident. For every student, this was a long journey, the longest being 14 years.
This process was aided by a new law introduced in June of 2025, which, in certain cases, shortens the application process for ethnic minorities in Thailand.
Citizenship and obtaining a legal status with better access to support are incredible milestones that directly impact trafficking vulnerability. Because of this work, all of these students are safer from trafficking and exploitation.
We are so thankful for our Freedom Chapter community of monthly donors whose consistent support fuels this long time, transformative work with vulnerable children.
Celebrate Two New Thai Citizens
Below are the stories of two students who gained citizenship in May of 2026:
Misu Gains Citizenship After Graduation
“I am so happy that in the end I finally get to have the same opportunities as everyone else. I can finally show my true potential without being limited because I don’t have citizenship. I want to thank everyone who stood by my side and helped me all this time, never leaving me to fight alone. I promise to use this opportunity to develop myself and do my best to give back to society.” —Misu
Even though Misu was born and raised in Thailand, she spent more than a decade missing out on opportunities due to her lack of legal status. At one point, Misu even won a higher-education scholarship but couldn’t accept it because of her lack of status.
When she joined The Freedom Chapter in 2021, our team stepped in and helped mediate with her father, who had abandoned Misu and her Burmese mother, obtain necessary documentation, navigate DNA tests, and break through government bureaucracy to push Misu’s application across the finish line.
Yami’s Citizenship Shows the Power of Partnerships
Abandoned in a village, Yami was rescued from the streets by a local NGO called The Thai Akha Mission Foundation. Even when she had a stable place to live, her stateless status still exacerbated her vulnerability, blocking her from education, adequate medical care, and opportunities to thrive.
When The Thai Akha Mission Foundation reached out to The Freedom Story in 2015, we invited her into The Freedom Chapter, giving her access to education, food, trafficking prevention training, and mentorship.
Regarding her citizenship process, the Thai Akha Mission Foundation worked on her application, while The Freedom Story provided training and counsel on her rights and legal status.
“Getting my Thai citizenship has made a dream I’ve held onto for so long finally come true. Thank you to everyone who stood by my side and encouraged me the whole time. This is the beginning of a brand-new chapter in my life, where I can move forward proudly as a Thai citizen, without any shame or fear of others telling me I don’t belong here anymore.” —Yami
Join The Freedom Chapter today to support students like Yami and Misu on their path to citizenship, freedom, and opportunity. When you become a monthly donor, you give students the consistent support they need to stay safe and build freer futures for generations to come.
