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For Adul Sam-on, the drama of the cave was another episode of an exhausting life: at the age of sixteen, the 14-year-old became a refugee, separated from his poor family and without education. His parents were hoping for a better life there. Adul comes from the autonomous but unrecognized state of Wa in neighboring Myanmar. The violent conflict of the ruling militia with the Myanmar government has forced thousands of people into exile.
Without a pbadport and birth certificate, he is among the more than 400,000 people declared stateless in Thailand, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. According to other sources, up to 3.5 million people in the country do not have citizenship.
For more than two weeks, he spent eleven other members of the youth football team in the depths of Tham Luang Cave in northern Thailand. And it is this stateless person who contributed to the success of the rescue operation. Adul is the only one of the group to speak English (with Thai, Burmese, Mandarin and Wa only one of the five languages). So he could communicate with members of a British dive team, who reached the first trapped. "What day do we have?" Asked the rescuers. He and the others are hungry.
Adul is the best student in his clbad, said the director during a conversation with The New York Times. He does not have to pay school fees because of good school and sports performance, lunch is free for him. 20% of the students are stateless and half belong to ethnic minorities. Just statelessness makes students like Adul only stronger. "These kids have a fighting spirit that helps them stand out."
>>> Report in the "New York Times."
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