understanding of the laws and procedures, also affect the ability to acquire nationality. 47 There are further bureaucratic obstacles, the application process involves presenting many documents, and long and expensive travel to the offices. Although since 2016, stateless persons are allowed to travel within their designated province without permission, travel outside their province, can still be challenging, undermining access to the application procedure. A 2015 study found that the average application time was over 4.5 years; and over 30% of applications were rejected. It has also been reported that in order to apply, a person’s name needs to be listed in an announcement first. 52 Issue 3: Denial of human rights of stateless people in Thailand 48 Right to health: The CRC obligates states to ensure “the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health”. The right to health is also guaranteed in Article 12 of the ICESCR and Article 29 of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration. Thailand has an established healthcare coverage scheme, which ensures free medical care to all Thai nationals. It also has a special budget allocated to provide healthcare to people with unclear status, the ‘Health Insurance for People with Citizenship Problems’ (HIPCP), which provides similar coverage to the scheme for nationals. Stateless persons must follow several steps to qualify, including registering with the ministry of interior, the ministry of health, and a local health clinic. Many operational problems — such as delays, insufficient collaboration between public health and interior ministries, and a lack of guidelines — have led to a failure to provide adequate healthcare to all stateless persons. Other barriers include travel time and costs, which are exacerbated in the rainy season. Although since 2016, stateless persons are allowed to travel within their province without permission, travel outside the province requires permission which can delay referral of severe cases to better equipped hospitals. Moreover, the fund merely covers medical costs, it does not guarantee stateless persons the right to healthcare, and there have been many reports of healthcare providers denying healthcare in practice.53 49 Stateless children insured with the HIPCP are generally in a poorer state of health, use in patient services 29% more than nationals covered by the universal scheme, and are 34% more likely to stay in hospital.54 There are approximately 80,000 undocumented students registered in school, and as of 22 September 2020, 3062 were granted permission to access healthcare.55 There is also low vaccination coverage and a lack of routine immunisation, which is increasingly important, in the context of COVID-19. 50 Freedom of Movement: Stateless people need permission from the District Office to travel outside their province. Travelling without such authorisation amounts to a crime, penalised by a fine or detention. The role of community leaders is key in acquiring a travel permit and they are sometimes required to accompany the applicant to the district office. People without any identity papers cannot travel at 52 C. Rijken, L. van Waas, M. Gramatikov & D. Brennan, The Nexus between Statelessness and Human Trafficking in Thailand (2015, Wolf Legal Publishers), p. 32. 53 National Health Security Office, ‘Healthcare rights of stateless people’ (June 2020). 54 Rosa Luxembourg Stiftung, ‘Atlas of the Stateless’ (2020). 55 UNHCR, ‘UNHCR welcomes move to strengthen healthcare for stateless students’ (25 September 2020). 10