STATELESS individuals and their plight have become a topic of concern that has garnered the attention of both local and national authorities.
With the vast state such as Sarawak, this issue is not a foreign matter among those living in the rural areas.
With the Ministry of Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development (KPWK) collaborating with the Ministry of Home Affairs (KDN), the focus intensifies on addressing this issue of stateless children in Sarawak.
Factors led to statelessness
Sarawak’s intricate web of causative factors leading to statelessness was unravelled through an extensive study titled “A Comprehensive Study on the Causative Factors Leading to Stateless Children in Sarawak” conducted by the Sarawak Social Development Council (MPS) in collaboration with a dedicated research group from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) in 2021.
The study shed light on the complex origins of statelessness among children.
It stated that among the contributing factors are unregistered marriages; unregistered adoption; abandonment by non-citizen biological mothers; post-birth marriage registration; unregistered births after divorce.
Aside from that, it added, statelessness could also happen due to parents not registering the birth of their child due to geographical factors that are far inland; and children placed in child protection institutions owned by the Sarawak Social Welfare Department (JKMNS).
Commenting on the matter, KPWK minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said that due to the issue of statelessness, these children are a vulnerable group at risk of being denied access to education and health services.
“Access to education and health is very important because it is identified as one of the triggering factors for the 14 social issues that our ministry focuses on.
“Among the issues are the vicious circle of poverty; student dropout; illiterate; property crime; sexual crimes; contagious disease; addiction and related social problems such as drug and substance abuse; teenage pregnancy; marriage and divorce; bullying; and domestic violence.
“It is disheartening to see stateless children are denied access to healthcare, welfare services, and education.
“Education is a basic right stipulated under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) 1989, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030,” she said.
Study to identify matters regarding stateless children
In order to address and mitigate the issue of statelessness, the state government through the KPWK is conducting a study to identify the number of undocumented children in the state.
Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said that the study was done to identify the problems faced by these children who did not get their citizenship.
“It is important to get citizenship status so that our children can go to school. This is because education is their right.
“For that reason, the (Sarawak) government is always looking for a way to help (complete the identification documents) because the authority (to issue) citizenship documents lies under the federal government and the Sarawak government can only provide temporary documents,” he said.
Establishment of PPK
Aside from the said study, a Special Task Force (PPK) has been established to resolve issues related to undocumented people in Sarawak who do not have birth certificates, identification papers or MyKads.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the main taskforce will be co-chaired by him and Abang Johari.
“During a courtesy call on the Premier, we discussed and agreed to it and where the Sarawak government will provide logistic support for us to reach out to the undocumented villagers.
“If we need a helicopter or four-wheel drive vehicles, the Sarawak government will provide the transportation, to ensure we can reach out to the undocumented people in the remote areas.
“We can’t expect or wait for them to come (to the office),” he said.
Saifuddin said the taskforce could be formed promptly due to the database in Sarawak available at the Sarawak Premier’s Department.
In the issue of statelessness, he said that the Sarawak government has identified 3,756 cases of individuals who do not have their own identity documents.
Meanwhile, for the other 9,314 cases, he disclosed, are due to several reasons, such as they do have birth certificates but without MyKads, status issues as well as those holding green ICs (temporary resident).
“The main committee (co-chaired by Abang Johari and I) will decide on the mechanisms (including the procedures) before handing over to the technical committee, which consist of officers from my ministry as well as the State Secretary.
“We will kick-off with these (identified) cases first since the Sarawak government has all the information, including where these people are located,” he said.
Saifuddin said the number is expected to increase as it is a dynamic issue; nevertheless, his ministry is committed to resolving all the cases.
He added that as the PPK is formed to focus on undocumented cases, the issue of stateless children will remain under the task force led by Fatimah.
“For cases under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution, where children in Sarawak who are without citizenship status or identification documents, we will leave it to Fatimah’s taskforce,” he said
That being said, Fatimah assured that her minister will continue to play an active and aggressive role in dealing with the issue of stateless children especially in relation to access to education and health services.
Temporary Documents for Stateless Individuals in Sarawak (DSITKS)
In aiding the stateless children to get their basic rights, KPWK also issued DSITKS specifically for them to have access to education and health provided by the government in Sarawak.
For the record, DSITKS is an initiative of the Sarawak government to issue temporary documents to children under 21 years of age who were born in Sarawak who have not yet obtained citizenship to be used as a specific identity to gain access to education and health services provided by the government. The valid period for DSITKS is for two years.
“To give them access to basic rights that they should be entitled to, our ministry allows the children without citizenship access to skill training centres owned by the Sarawak Government such as Center for Technical Excellence Sarawak (Centexs) and Sarawak Skills Development Centre (PPKS).
“Aside from that, we also encourage and support non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that provide education and training facilities to stateless children in Sarawak such as the Destiny for Children Association in Sibu and the Persatuan Pendidikan D’Wira in Kuching.
“As such, the ministry continues to engage with stateless communities through such NGOs by giving funds or grants for them to implement social support programmes for these communities,” she said.
Revealing further, Fatimah stated that as of June 30 this year, a total of 634 applications for DSITKS have been received by KPWK.
She noted that only 289 of them met the stipulated requirements and out of these, 189 applications for temporary personal documents were approved by the federal government.
“Most of the applications that did not get approval involved children who did not have birth certificates,” she said.
The role of community leaders
Aside from the efforts given by the state and federal government, community leaders too need to play their role in looking at the stateless issues in their respective areas.
According to Abang Johari, this is because the leadership at the grassroots level is more familiar with the communities around them, including the issue of statelessness.
“Community leaders need to find out who the undocumented children are in your respective areas.
“Accordingly, through this action, community leaders can help district officials and residents get the exact numbers on the people who are facing this problem,” he said.
To address the issue at the grassroot level, Fatimah said that apart from the cooperation with the NGOs, her ministry also cooperates with the Resident and District Offices as well as key strategic partner agencies including those at the grassroots level, especially Community Leaders (KMKK) throughout Sarawak.
She added that the ministry also increased awareness and advocacy on the issue of identity documents and DSITKS applications through 115 series of various outreach programmes such as Social Development Randau, Community Solidarity Randau; Randau Community Wellbeing; and other programmes organised by strategic partners of the Ministry.
“On top of that, the Sarawak government also supports access to education for foreign children who are legally in palm oil plantations by giving approval to plantation companies in Sarawak to establish a Community Learning Centre (CLC).
“This is to provide temporary primary school education for children of farm workers from Indonesia who are 7 to 12 years old.
“Thus far, there are 16 CLCs in operation involving 890 students and 49 teachers funded by the Indonesian government and farm operators in Sarawak,” she revealed.
Milestone achieved in the effort to addressing the issue
While resolving the statelessness issue might be a complex task for the State Government, it does not stop them from achieving notable milestones in its journey addressing the issue.
According to Fatimah, one of her ministry’s main achievements is having successfully settled pending citizenship applications through the Special Committee on Citizenship under Article 15A of the Malaysian Constitution.
She stated that since the establishment of the Special Committee on Citizenship under Article 15A of the Malaysian Constitution at the Sarawak level in 2016, a total of 1,252 applications have been presented and 306 approval letters issued.
“During my courtesy visit to Saifuddin on Jan 17 this year, this Special Committee was activated and functioning again.
“Following the meeting, he also committed to co-chair the Special Committee and settle the 946 outstanding applications from Sarawak.
“Alhamdulillah, it is a pleasure to be informed that all these outstanding applications have been completed and the results have been issued in June 2023. With that, we thank the Home Ministry for delivering what had been promised.”
Looking forward, she expressed her hope that her ministry’s strategic partners will continue their cooperation in organising programmes and social interventions.
“This is needed to provide awareness and advisory services about the importance of registering marriages regularly and the need to have valid identity documents,” she said.
