Agenzia Fides

Bangkok (Agenzia Fides) - Fifty years since the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, 12 million people are still deprived of citizenship. According to the UN Agency for Refugees, most of them live in Asia. The organization Plan International, which deals with the protection of the rights of children, estimated that each year about 30 million are born in Asia and are not registered and therefore run the risk of living without health care, no education, and without any type of benefit and employment. "Millions of children are born in geographically isolated areas without ever being recorded. According to the national census these children do not exist and therefore are stateless", this is what is read in a statement from the coordinator of the Universal Plan Asia registration office. About 20% of non-citizens from around the world live in Thailand. To date, only 38 of the 193 UN member states have ratified the Convention. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 31/08/2011)