Surapong explained yesterday that about 70,000 children in Thailand were unregistered, and 10,000 of them live along the borders of Thailand and Myanmar in Tak province. Most of the unregistered children are in remote districts like Tha Song Yang, Mae Ramat, Mae Sot, Phop Phra, and Umphang. Some of them are children of migrants living along the border and most of the unregistered children study in charity schools, mainly at “poor” religious schools. Therefore, the children need |support from the government, but first they have to be registered.

Surapong said yesterday at a joint meeting in Mae Sot district in a bid to track and gather the “alien” or unregistered children who have not been recognised and give them a registration number with the Thai government. This was a policy of the Provincial Administration Department.

The meeting held at Sarntawamaitrisueksa School and joined by several agencies included Mae Sot’s administration officers, Mae Sot’s Civil Registration officers, and five representatives from public and private schools.

The meeting agreed to offer education, medical care, and the children would be registered

“First, 334 children will be registered within two months as a pilot group, then 10,000 of them will follow according to a new order from Provincial Administration Department giving every child an identification code,” Surapong said.

Suwaphan also told some 200 representatives of a Village Fund network at a workshop in Bangkok that projects carried out under the scheme must be transparent and must involve the participation of local residents and be accepted by them.

Also, they must not be made redundant by projects initiated under the Bt5-million-per-tambon scheme, he said.

If the projects were successful, the funding would continue, he assured.

On Tuesday, the Cabinet approved a Bt35-billion budget for the Village Fund covering 79,556 villages and rural communities, each receiving Bt500,000 to spend on infrastructure projects. It is hoped the scheme will boost the grassroots economy.

The institute’s president, Assoc Prof Chusak Limsakul, yesterday said a university survey of students found the Hat Yai campus had the most number of affected students (1,211).

That was followed by the Pattani campus (803), Phuket (265), Surat Thani (78) and Trang (10).

Deans from the five campuses will attend a meeting with Chusak on Tuesday to outline measures for individual aid payments, the amount of aid based on the degree of impact on individuals in terms of tuition fees, dormitory rent and part-time jobs.

The university, southern Thailand’s largest, has nearly 35,000 students.

An in-depth survey would be conducted later to determine suitable aid payments, he added.

Proponents believe the scheme, the Thailand Fair Trade Standard, will help more Thai entrepreneurs penetrate international markets.

Nuttaphong Jaruwannaphong, director of the Thai Social Enterprise Office, told a Bangkok forum yesterday that the fair trade standard would be used to define social enterprise companies and they would be entitled to a lot of benefits, such as reduced tax, low-interest loans and product orders from the government sector.

The draft of the fair trade standard was revealed at the forum, while the Social Enterprise Promotion Act is expected to be implemented within the next three months.

Under the draft there were 10 criteria for being a social enterprise company. One is that a company must help underprivileged people. It must also be transparent and responsible, and it must practice fair business.

A company must also sell goods at fair prices. It must also not use or be linked to child or forced labour, and must take care of its employees based on the same standard for all.

The other criteria include having a good working environment, providing employees with chances to improve their careers, help promote public awareness about fair trade and care for the environment.

Sarinee Achavanuntakul is managing director for Knowledge Development at Sal Forest Co Ltd, which aims to jumpstart and sustain a public discourse on sustainable business. Sarinee told the forum that Thailand having its own fair trade standard would help consumers and producers maintain good trade while also helping to guarantee fair entrepreneurs’ products internationally. The label would make it easier for consumers to decide on a purchase, she said.

She said that while the trend of social enterprise companies kept growing, many big companies were also trying to have their products seen under this light.

She said Thailand still had no clear standard to define or control such a label. Each company was left to decide and come up with their own practice of “fair trade”.

Thailand standardising fair trade practices could help elevate the standard of Thai goods and they would be seen as more reliable, Sarinee said.

But she stressed it was important the label was controlled by the private or non-government sector not the government, so the scheme was seen as being more trustworthy.

Dignity Returns consists of 10 members who used to work in a clothing factory that treated its staff unfairly.

Manop Kaewpaka, a representative of Dignity Returns, said the company had always complied with the fair trade standard but remained uncertified because Thailand did not have a definition for such a standard.

“This made me miss an order from Australian clients who required the fair trade certification,” he said.

He said because there was no agency in Thailand that could back his firm’s fair trade bona fides, the company would have to apply to get a fair trade certificate from an international agency.

That would cost about Bt100,000, he said.

The meeting was held to select expert committee members to join the provincial fishery committee so that it would truly represent stakeholders. This was after the government had informed them that Article 34 was not yet in effect pending the Fisheries Department’s completion of a ministerial regulation to support “local fishermen permit” issuance. They were also told that the implementation would allow the provincial fishery committee to consider a fishing zone extension.

Local fishermen had called for cancellation of Article 34 because it would reportedly limit the rights of small-scale fishermen (who had boats under 10 tonnes gross and usually went fishing in a range of 3-12 nautical miles). Keeping them fishing along the coast would also lead to fights over resources and it was unfair because commercial boats were being allowed to fish beyond three nautical miles to the edge of the country’s 200-nautical-mile territory, the local fishermen said. The new Fisheries Emergency Decree was enforced in November to end illegal fishing and lifting Thailand’s ranking in regard to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

The move was initiated under the order of Provincial Police Region 9 Commissioner Lt-General Weerapong Chuenpakdee, the source said. The probe is being led by Weerapong’s deputy, Maj-General Ekkapop Prasitthiwatt-anachai. There is public speculation the incident could lead to the transfer of senior police. It has been reported that one of the dens raided had recently been handed over to a |former Songkhla politician by well-known Hat Yai social welfare figure.

The raids, led by army, police and administration officials, resulted in the arrest of 150 punters and the seizure of some Bt13 million in cash and cheques, 36 cars and 98 motorcycles.

As of yesterday, Hat Yai Police had granted bail release to 32 punters.