Mong Thongdee wins 3rd place in Origami Airplane Contest

Mong Thongdee, a twelve-year-old stateless who was born in Thailand to Myanmar migrants, has won 3rd place in the individual event (paper dart contest) at the All-Japan Origami Airplane Contest in Japan on Sunday.



He and his team won the first place in the team event in the same competition in Makuhari, near Tokyo, on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009.

Mong, 2008 Thai origami airplane champion and one of nearly half a million stateless people in Thailand who legally cannot leave and return to the country, was granted a temporary passport exceptionally to take part in the contest in Japan with paper planes that can fly for 12 seconds at a time.



The Interior Ministry initially rejected his application to have a temporary travel document to go to Japan on the grounds that he is stateless boy.

However the ministry changed the position after several people, including Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, personally stepped in.