Plight of stateless children: Association seeks meeting with Home Ministry

KOTA KINABALU: An estimated 8,000 children in Sabah, whose mothers are foreigners, are facing difficulty obtaining citizenship status even though their fathers are Malaysians, said Sabah People’s Rights Association president, Lee Pun Yee.

He said, the problem arose when these children were born before their parents registered their marriage.

“These children have Malaysian fathers and migrant mothers from the Philippines, Indonesia or China,” he said.

According to Lee, these mothers had entered Sabah with work pass or passport through proper channels and are not IMM13 holders.

“Born before their parents registered their marriage, these children were only issued with birth certificates but not citizenship,” he said at a press conference here yesterday.

Over the past four years, Lee said, the association has been trying to assist around 800 of such cases but none of the children have been granted citizenship thus far.

He said, some families have been repeatedly applying for citizenship for their children over the years but were rejected by the Home Affairs Ministry without any reason given.

However, he said, children with Malaysian mothers and migrant fathers were automatically granted citizenship status.

According to Lee, several attempts in the past to meet with officers of the Home Affairs Ministry during the tenure of the previous administration had not been successful.

As such, he hoped that Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Shafie Apdal would meet with them on this matter, adding that the association had written to him twice to set up a meeting in August and September this year.

“We hope the Chief Minister can provide the association with a recommendation letter for us to meet with the Home Affairs Minister in order to address this issue,” Lee said.

Lee said, these stateless children have nowhere else to go to when they reach the age of 21.

“They are required to pay for treatment at government hospitals; they cannot enter universities; they would be lucky if they complete Form 5 education. These children are also at risk of being detained by the police,” said Lee.

According to Lee, there was a case of a Malaysian father and an Indonesian mother, whose for first child was stateless because they did not legally register their marriage before the child was born.

The parents later legalised their marriage and their second, third and fourth children were granted citizenship status.

“Why can’t the government approve citizenship to the first child?” Lee asked.

For such cases, Lee said, the government could have fined the parents instead of denying citizenship for these children.