SOS Children's Village Chiang Rai

A bleak future for children in one of the poorest parts of Thailand

The city of Chiang Rai is the capital of Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand. The province, which borders Myanmar (Burma) and Laos, is one of the poorest parts of Thailand. Traditionally the population has dedicated itself mainly to the cultivation of opium using slash-and-burn techniques. Although now illegal, this form of cultivation continues and causes deforestation, thus increasing ecological threats such as floods and landslides. However, due to the remoteness of the area and the lack of mineral resources, the population has hardly any alternative ways of earning a living. Large parts of the population of the northern provinces are immigrants from neighbouring countries. Most of them are not even officially registered as Thai citizens and therefore have no civil rights, cannot assume regular jobs or obtain land titles.

Driven by poverty and malnutrition, scores of unaccompanied Burmese children cross the border into Thailand every day. Most of them have never received a formal education, since there are only very few schools in the border area of Myanmar (Burma); in addition, the schools usually charge fees that poor families cannot afford. Therefore these children are forced to earn their living in Thailand by taking any job they can get. Many of them do not speak the Thai language, so they end up doing menial work in tea parlours, restaurants or hotels or, in the worst cases, engaging in overt or clandestine prostitution. Due to their traumatic childhood experiences, once they become older they run great risks of becoming addicted to the locally produced amphetamines, and many of them find themselves working for drug barons in the area. Others move to the large cities in the south, where quite a few of them engage in illegal activities. There are numerous reports of child-trafficking to other provinces.