Dr Cynthia Maung, the founder and director of the Mae Tao clinic in Tak’s Mae Sot district and an ethnic Karen born in Myanmar, has applied for Thai citizenship after helping to provide health services for patients along the border for three decades.
On Wednesday, Transborder News reported that Dr Maung and staff from the Hill Area and Community Development Foundation (HADF) had visited the Mae Sot District Office in Tak province to request her Thai police clearance certificate and submit an application for Thai citizenship.
Dr Maung told the press she has been working as a Myanmar refugee for over 30 years, and holding a Thai ID card would allow her to access more aid from international and Thai agencies.
When asked if her application suggests she plans to return to Myanmar, Dr Maung said she would continue to provide healthcare for people from both sides of the border regardless of whatever citizenship she holds.
Meanwhile, HADF founder Tuenjai Deetes has submitted a letter to the interior minister in support of her application, according to reports.
Ms Tuenjai wrote that Dr Maung’s humanitarian work at the Mae Tao clinic has been helping patients since 1989 with a vast range of injuries and illnesses, including migrants and stateless people along the Thai-Myanmar border, which has been a boon for public hospitals that are overburdened with work.
The Mae Tao clinic helps 30,000 patients a year on average, with a budget of around 48 million baht. In 34 years, over a million patients have been taken care of by the clinic, using over 1.8 billion baht without any public funding from the government.
Apart from her medical work, Ms Tuenjai wrote that Dr Maung also founded a children’s development centre in Mae Sot district to provide education for the children of refugees, using Karen, Burmese, Thai and English as part of the curriculum. There are approximately 1,000 students from kindergarten to high-school level at the centre.
Dr Worawit Tantiwattanasap, director of Umphang Hospital, said that without the Mae Tao clinic, public hospitals along the border would not be able to handle all of the migrants and stateless patients who flock there appealing for help. There are an estimated 900,000 people in the catchment area of these five border districts.
“Thai citizenship would allow Dr Cynthia to register her foundation as a Thai agency,” Dr Worawit wrote.