for risky coping strategies, such as migration outside the village through contact with a middleman, which may lead to a situation of trafficking. Stateless people feel less able to rely on the police and other state structures for help, including in situations of crisis or dispute, which can also aggravate the risk of becoming trapped in exploitation.6 Efforts to resolve statelessness for Thailand’s hill tribe people 15. As mentioned, in 2008, Thailand amended its Nationality Act, determining that anyone whose nationality was revoked by the Revolutionary Party Declaration between 1972 and 1992, or who failed to acquire Thai nationality because of this Declaration, can acquire Thai nationality if they provide evidence of their birth and subsequent domicile in Thailand as well as demonstrate good behaviour.7 There are some concerns related to the requirement to demonstrate ‘good behaviour’, which is a discretionary and unnecessary condition that undermines the object of realising the nationality of a significant population (and their descendants) whose right to Thai nationality was arbitrarily deprived through the Declaration. However, this law brings enormous potential for positive change. The amendment can provide Thai nationality to those who were previously unable to access it due to the 1972 Declaration, as well as their children. If implemented in full, this would allow the resolution of statelessness on a large scale, contributing significantly to the global #ibelong campaign to end statelessness by 2024 spearheaded by UNHCR.8 However, implementation of the amendment suffers from many difficulties. 16. A substantial segment of the stateless hill tribe people is eligible for nationality under the amendment. Yet, many believe they are not eligible or do not have the required documents to prove that they are, including due to previous restrictions in access to civil registration. Other reasons hill tribe people have not (yet) pursued nationality are the costs, the travel and time required, or that people simply do not know what to do.9 17. The application process itself is also problematic: it involves the presenting of many different documents, hours of queuing and long and expensive travel to the office of application. The travel restrictions imposed on stateless hill tribe people reinforce problems of access to the application procedure. It has also been reported that in order to apply, a person’s name needs to be listed in an announcement first. Applying outside this personal slot is possible but said to be risky, as that means too many people are applying and documents might get lost. A survey found the average pending time for applications to be 55 months. This significant delay means that many are still waiting for a decision on their application more than four years after it was submitted. These problems must be tackled if Thailand is to effectively remedy the problems relating to the right to a nationality for its hill tribe population. Rohingya in Thailand 18. The Rohingya are an ethno-religious minority from the Rakhine/Arakan region in Myanmar, adjacent to Bangladesh. The Rohingya have been arbitrarily deprived of their nationality in Myanmar and suffer from persecution, discrimination, exclusion and violence. As a consequence, 6 See above, note 3. 7 Note that in the same year, Thailand also reformed its civil registration procedures to guarantee access to birth registration for all children born on the territory, regardless of the status of their parents. 8 UNHCR, #ibelong campaign, available at http://ibelong.unhcr.org/en/home.do, last accessed 15-09-2015. 9 See above, note 3.