PETALING JAYA: A total of 16,392 stateless persons have been residing in Peninsular Malaysia from 2016 until June this year and of the cases verified by an NGO, it is estimated that 7,000 have been recognised as Malaysians while the rest are without citizenship.
Development of Human Resources and Rural Areas (DHRRA) director of social protection Maalini Ramalo said of the total cases, 9,392 are categorised as stateless and waiting for the outcome of their applications.
“Article 15A of the Federal Constitution limits applications under special circumstances to those under the age of 21,” she said.
Maalini added that the numbers presented by DHRAA are only the tip of the iceberg and the issue of statelessness is much bigger.
“For cases registered under DHRRA, we only collected the data throughout Malaysia except for Kelantan, Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak due to a shortage of resources.
“Furthermore, we only focused on cases involving pre-independence and childhood statelessness. The numbers do not include Orang Asli communities and the Borneo population.”
Malini is calling for the citizenship law to be reviewed with relevant stakeholders while transparency in policies and amendments must be made to reduce the vulnerability of stateless children.
She said the immediate need is to implement transparent policies that recognise stateless persons in Malaysia.
“Children born in Malaysia to stateless parents have no hope of getting foreign citizenship. Their strong attachment to Malaysia should enable the necessary protection and citizenship based on the safeguards provided in the Federal Constitution.
“Even the law regarding children born out of wedlock to Malaysian men must be reformed, especially when Malaysia is one of the last two countries in the world (the other being Barbados) that discriminates against men and restricts citizenship for their children,” she said.
“Foundling children (those abandoned after birth) and those adopted by either one Malaysian parent should be given automatic citizenship. None of these situations should be left to the discretion of the Home Ministry.”
Maalini said currently, Article 15A of the Federal Constitution provides the government with “special powers”.
“The government can register anyone below the age of 21 as a citizen under ‘special circumstances as it sees fit’. In reality, anyone who is born or adopted by a Malaysian parent can apply for citizenship under this provision with the necessary documents. But the application process is agonising for children of Malaysians without citizenship because they are not prioritised despite not having any access to another country’s citizenship,” she said.
“Children over 21 are then denied citizenship under Article 15A based on the assumption that they can access citizenship in their foreign parents’ country. But this is untrue.”
Maalini said the issue of statelessness is of serious concern to the affected children as they are given only minimum access to Malaysian facilities.
“The only benefit made available to stateless persons is access to public schools at primary and secondary levels. The application process requires an annual levy to be paid if the child has either one Malaysian parent or is adopted. Other than that, there are no processes available to ensure stateless persons have access to tertiary education, healthcare, employment or mobility,” she said.
“It is disheartening that refugees in Malaysia who carry the UN High Commission for Refugees card can access healthcare with a 50% discount, while children of Malaysian families without citizenship are forced to pay full fees like foreigners.”
