The Mindanao Examiner Regional Newspaper
Malaysia refuses to recognize children of Filipino refugees born in Sabah
MALAYSIA HAS REFUSED to recognize the birth right of children of Filipino refugees despite being born there and holder of birth certificate.
Malaysian media reported that Deputy Home Minister Aziz Jamman stressed these children are only given IMM13 - a visit pass issued by the Immigration Department to Filipino refugees who escaped to Sabah following unrest in Mindanao during the Marcos administration in the 1970s.
IMM13 holders are allowed only to stay in Sabah and Labuan, but they can seek employment, attend school and get medical services from the government.
Jamman said these children are not considered Malaysians although they have been issued birth certificates. But birth certificates issued to these children are different from Malaysian citizens – they are all with distinctive red color.
Just last October, the Sabah Immigration Department also suspended a program to accept new applications for IMM13 from children of other IMM13 holders. And in 2014, the Sabah National Registration Department said birth certificates were issued to foreign children born in Sabah for record purposes and to monitor their presence, but they were not considered citizens.
“Sabah has a lot of documents like IMM13 and Sijil Burung-burung (state-issued documents). So we want to see how to manage all these documents,” Free Malaysia Today quoted Jamman as saying. “If they are born in Sabah, they are given birth certificates, but this does not make them citizens,” he added.
The Malaysian Insight also quoted Jamman as saying that IMM13 pass holders registered with the Immigration Department form only a fraction of the true migrant population in Sabah. He said the number of migrants is likely larger than reported due to the issuance of fake papers by illegal syndicates and pointed out the problem has become “chronic”.
Malaysia’s decision not to recognize children of Filipino refugees born there is racial discrimination. But there was no immediate statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila or Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim, of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. (Mindanao Examiner)