THAILAND Context and existing response There is strong momentum in Thailand, thanks to the Government’s political will to address the situation of statelessness both domestically and as a regional leadership example, as well as by its strong engagement with UNHCR. Underscoring this, in December 2015, the Government officially announced that 18,773 formerly stateless people – mostly students – were granted nationality over the previous three years. Similarly, the authorities later announced that, since November 2015, more than 5,000 stateless people had acquired Thai nationality, bringing the total registered stateless population down to 438,821 by mid-2016. In 2014, UNHCR launched a pilot project for the reduction of statelessness implemented by the Bureau of Registration Administration (BoRA) under the Department of Provincial Administration (DoPA), supporting mobile teams to process nationality applications in remote areas. UNHCR also deployed 20 community statelessness workers in districts with a high prevalence of statelessness to sensitize stateless people and assist them in preparing nationality applications. While the mobile team project came to an end (equipment and capacity remained with DoPA), UNHCR launched another pilot project in the last quarter of 2015 to establish in-school service centres, with associated awareness-raising, capacity building and direct support for vulnerable people as key components. This model proved successful and has been expanded in 2016 through a partnership agreement with the NGO Adventist Development and Relief Agency (“ADRA”). UNHCR also works with NGOs and grassroots level initiatives, as well as with district hospitals, schools and the territorial administrations, which has led to increased institutional knowledge of the dynamics surrounding the nationality application system and the complexity of the statelessness situation in Thailand. Strategy and partnerships UNHCR coordinates closely with the Government of Thailand and partners to ensure appropriate and structured identification of the stateless based on clarified criteria, and in the context of Thailand’s revised National Strategy on Persons with Problems on Legal Status and Rights. UNHCR also leads advocacy and joint humanitarian efforts for the further prevention and reduction of statelessness in the country, as well as for the protection of stateless people through national mechanisms that exist in cooperation with partners and other stakeholders. UNHCR continues to support the Government of Thailand in delivering systematically on its statelessness-related pledges made in 2011, notably that “to consider where appropriate further amendment of the Nationality Act as well as provide greater access to birth registration, to build on Thailand's progress in reducing vulnerability to statelessness”. To facilitate faster processing of nationality applications and accelerating the pace of reducing the number of stateless people in the country, the pilot project launched in 2015 will be extended to several districts where there is a high prevalence of statelessness. UNHCR will support capacity building and training of relevant government officials and registrars at provincial and district levels, focusing on the locations with a significant backlog of pending nationality applications. In parallel, UNHCR will engage in a partnership with local NGOs to create peer-support networks within communities with a high prevalence of statelessness, which could assist stateless people in completing their applications and preparing corresponding supporting documents. Vision for 2019    Tens of thousands individuals have submitted nationality applications and thousands have had their nationality confirmed. Tens of thousands of stateless people provided with information about procedures to acquire nationality. Capacity of local authorities to process nationality applications strengthened. 27