12 young boys and their football coach trapped in a cave on the border with Myanmar. Over the next 3 weeks, one of the most miraculous rescue operations in recent memory. 2 months on, the boys are safe and the cave site is deserted. The only visitors curious tourists keen to see the site of the story that captivated the world.

TONY CHENG CHIANG RAI, THAILAND "Tham Luang cave has now been completely shut off and the eyes of the world have moved on. But the cave rescue did raise some very important issues. Of the group stuck inside, 3 of the boys and the coach were stateless. They didn't have Thai citizenship, and while their citizenship has been fast tracked, it remains an enormous problem for nearly half a million people in Thailand.

Just a few kilometres down the road, the Thai flag flies above a village perched on a remote hilltop. A quarter of the residents here are stateless members of the Lahu tribe who have populated the fluid border area for centuries.

In the village square, young men fashion furniture from wrought iron and large hunks of local timber.

The work is commissioned by a local NGO, keen to help employ these young stateless men, who can't find legitimate work without official papers. One of them, Yanghor, ethnically Chinese but born and raised in Thailand, has been waiting for citizenship for more than a decade. But he bears no grudge against the boys whose status was fast tracked.

YANGHOR SAEHUNG CHIANG MAI "On the one hand I'm glad for them. But for all of us who don't have citizenship, we feel a bit sorry for ourselves. But it will give them a bright future."

A bit further up the hill, children play at building houses, trying to lay down foundations. But with no official papers, they can't attend schools or receive important benefits like healthcare.

These are some of the poorest parts of Thailand, with people living well below the poverty line.

The path to citizenship is excessively complicated, and takes not years but decades and that, say the NGO's, makes stateless people particularly vulnerable to crime and human trafficking.

SOMKIAT JAKCHEE DIRECTOR, PROJECT JUSTICE "I think because of the lack of citizenship, it makes them have less choice in their life and without hope, many people won't dream for a further of brighter future."

So while the boys of the Wild Boars football team are being celebrated for their heroic escape, hundreds of thousands remain trapped in stateless limbo. Tony Cheng, Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand.