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Bangkok Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- Bangkok Post
Crunch time for Phumtham
New interior minister, and current acting prime minister, Phumtham Wechayachai, is a man who can make tough decisions. His recent record includes the decision to return Uyghurs to China early this year, as demanded by Beijing. Last month, he approved a long-delayed, controversial submarine procurement from China -- a call that even junta leader-cum-prime minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha shied away from. True to form, Mr Phumtham started his first week at the ministry by transferring two director-generals at the Department of Provincial Administration and the Department of Local Administration -- strategic bodies directly involved with local voters and administration. Yet, Mr Phumtham will be judged on how he handles two controversial land issues. The first is land encroachment in Kao Kradong; the other is a scandal at the Alpine Golf Course. Last Monday, Mr Phumtham announced a committee would investigate the long-standing Khao Kradong dispute in Buri Ram province, which involves state-owned land allegedly overlapping property linked to the influential Chidchob family. The dispute, which spans over 50 years, centres on 5,083 rai in a designated forest conservation zone. The Supreme Court ruled the land belonged to the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) prior to the issuance of land title deeds by the Department of Lands (DoL), and that those deeds were unlawful and must be revoked. The DoL had previously decided not to revoke 900 deeds, including 20 linked to the influential Chidchob family, key players behind the Bhumjaithai Party (BJT). The Kao Kradong issue is believed by most people to be a clash between Pheu Thai and the BJT. In January, former deputy interior minister Chada Thaiseth, a BJT lawmaker, signed an order to revoke the Shinawatra family's ownership of the Alpine Golf and Sports Club and an adjacent residential complex in Klong Luang district of Pathum Thani. This reversed an earlier court ruling that the land belonged to a Buddhist temple and therefore could not be sold. The Alpine Golf Course is a long-running scandal centring on the sale of 924 rai of land in Pathum Thani belonging to Wat Dhammamikaramvoraviharn to Alpine Real Estate and Alpine Golf and Sport Club in 2002. Both companies are linked to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his daughter, the current suspended prime minister, Paetongtarn. Originally, the land plot was donated by a widow, Noem Chamnanchartsakda, to Wat Dhammamikaramvoraviharn. After her death, the Mahamongkut Ratcha Wittayalai Foundation, which oversees the property on the late widow's behalf, sold plots to politicians. In 2002, the land was sold to Khunying Potjaman na Pombejra, four years before her then husband Thaksin became prime minister. The Shinawatras then developed the golf course and residential properties on it. In April, following the ruling against them, the Shinawatra Family sued the Ministry of Interior and the Land Department for revoking the land, seeking 7.7 billion baht in compensation. The spotlight is now on Mr Phumtham. Of course, he deserves praise for tackling the Kao Kradong dispute, but with his newly elevated status, he will be expected to adhere to the highest professional and ethical standards in his handling of the Alpine Golf Course affair. If any doubts over his scruples remain afterwards, Mr Phumtham risks being remembered as a politician who flunked the defining moment of his career to curry political favour for his party and his (suspended) boss.
BBC News
27-03-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Deprivation of Liberty: Children lose freedom amid care shortage
At-risk young people are having their freedom taken away with court orders because of a shortage of suitable accommodation for them, Ofsted and children's charities have warned. The use of Deprivation of Liberty (DoL) orders that stop young people from leaving places they are put in by local authorities has been increasing in recent rise comes amid a shortage of registered children's accommodation and warnings about placing young people in non-registered homes, of which there are 117 in the north-west of said none of them wanted to put young people in "unregistered" homes through lack of suitable options. The number of DoL applications has increased by more than 10 times in less than a decade. The orders are the most extreme intervention the state can make to keep children and others mean a child must live somewhere they are not free to leave or are put under continuous supervision. But some of the children are severely traumatised by abuse and neglect, and have complex needs requiring high levels of skilled care and supervision. If you are affected by any of the issues in this story, you can visit the BBC Action Line for information on available support and advice Chereece, from Stockport in Greater Manchester, started running away after she was put in a children's home 35 miles from her hometown. Chereece, now 23, said she was "running away to be with [her] friends and family" and that when she was deprived of her freedom, it caused "more trauma and more damage".She had been moved seven times to different homes in Newton-le-Willows, St Helens, Manchester, Runcorn and was also housed in non-children's homes, including a secure adult hospital and in an activity centre in Wales where she had to move to a different cabin every few days. Chereece said she experienced "constant disruption and instability" and made a threat to take her own life because she "didn't want to keep going through what the system was putting [her] through". Under a DoL she was then put in a secure adult facility in Shrewsbury where she had to "sleep with the door open with a nurse watching" before being moved to a secure children's hospital in Manchester, and then a unit in Peterborough."Things like clothes, TV, mobile phone or any beauty products had to be earned," she 16, she fought to have the DoL overturned with the help of a social worker. She said the judge at the tribunal said she never have been put in a secure unit and understood that her running away was because she was not being listened to and not having her needs met. 'National scandal' A report by the Children's Commissioner last December found many children who were subject to a DoL end up living in temporary accommodation like "holiday camps, activity centres or caravans" because of the lack of suitable places in registered children's homes, describing it as "a national scandal".Ofsted told the BBC it is not unusual for local authorities to try up to 200 places and be turned shortage has meant children have been placed in unregistered homes , supervised by agency staff and often without access to education or vital psychological has previously said that any home that was not registered and therefore not inspected and rated by Ofsted was "illegal". Katharine Sacks-Jones, chief executive of Become, a charity for children in care, said DoLs were being used more than they should have been, and the rise of unregistered children's homes was a "symptom of the crisis facing children's social care".She added: "Local authorities are saying the only way they can keep a child safe now, and the only way they can get them somewhere to live, is with a Deprivation of Liberty Order. "I think that's really concerning because they should be a very, very last resort."Lisa Harker, head of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, said DoLs were "always designed to be a last resort option and a temporary measure.""The data shows numbers of applications rising across the country, to well over a thousand young people a year, and tragically the majority of them are still in this situation six months later," she added. Ofsted warned that 12% of children placed in the unregistered settings that they investigated last year were subject to a watchdog said: "These are some of the most vulnerable children in care."They should not be placed in settings with no regulatory or independent oversight."Yvette Stanley, Ofsted's director for social care, said: "Local authorities will tell us that before they've considered an unregistered children's home, they might have tried 200 places and been turned away."I'm really worried that the most vulnerable children, their needs are escalating, not diminishing, because they're not getting that help. "I worry about children in the wrong places with the wrong staff, the wrong oversight, adding to the harm they've already experienced."Last November homes not registered by Ofsted became illegal for children in care or care leavers up to the age of measure was introduced after the number of unregistered private children's homes rose by 500% in the last three years. The Department for Education said: "It is entirely unacceptable that due to a shortage of placements that cater to complex needs, vulnerable children are being housed in inappropriate, unregistered accommodation."We're committed to increasing provision for all children in care, including those with more complex needs, and through our landmark Children's Wellbeing and Schools bill we're giving Ofsted stronger powers to crack down on providers found to be running illegal, unregistered homes."Arooj Shah, the chairperson of the Local Government Association's Children and Young People Board, said: "No council wants to place a child in an unregistered setting, and it is extremely concerning that in many cases, a lack of choice means provision is not fully meeting children's needs."She described the cost of care placements as "astronomical" and said central and local government, the NHS and Ofsted needed to work together to fix the added: "It is helpful that the Government is taking action to tackle the broken 'market' for children's social care placements, including through the Children's Wellbeing and Families Bill, and we will continue to work with them to make sure every child has the loving, supportive home that they need and deserve." Chereece said she was now living happily with her daughter, back in her hometown of Stockport, and working for the civil said she wanted to share her experience to "ensure other children in care don't go through what [she has] been through"."I hope my daughter never has to experience anything like that and she'll grow up in a loving home and she'll know that she's got someone who is supporting her and by her side all the way through her life experiences," she added. Read more stories from Cheshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC North West on X.
