All four stateless members of the Wild Boar football team have been granted Thai citizenship, just a month after the world watched their near-miraculous rescue from flooded Luang Cave.
Three boys and their coach Ekkaphol Chantawong were among 30 stateless people who yesterday received a Thai ID card in a ceremony at Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district office.
The three boys were Mongkhol Boonpiam, Pornchai Kamluang, and Adul Sam-orn. Adul was the boy whose English skilled allowed him to so efficiently communicate with the UK divers who first discovered their group after 10 days trapped deep inside the cave.
Mae Sai District Chief Somsak Kanakham insisted yesterday that the cave rescue, which involved a team of thousands, played no role in their receiving Thai citizenship.
“It was not because of that event, but because they’re all qualified,” Somsak said.
Ekkaphol, 25, joined the ceremony yesterday while still wearing the robes of his recent monkhood, which he entered on July 25 to honor the death of Samarn Kunan, a former SEAL officer who died to help save him and the boys.
Somsak said that there are about 27,000 stateless people currently awaiting citizenship in Chiang Rai, a northern province home to many ethnic minorities.
There are at least 439,000 people registered by the Thai government as stateless, according to the UNHCR.
Related:
Meet the Press: Wild Boars make first public appearance since rescue
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