Human rights lawyer N. Surendran says Putrajaya lacks the political will to resolve the problem faced by stateless children. – The Malaysian Insider pic, February 23, 2014.Thirteen-year-old Hemarani from Tanjung Sepat, Selangor, is stateless and has a heart disorder. She attends a Tamil school near her home but her main concern is her parents, both odd-job workers, who have to fork out RM400 to RM500 for each visit to the National Heart Institute as she is not entitled to free government healthcare.
Hemarani’s plight, alongside that of 150,000 other stateless children in Malaysia, was highlighted by the non-governmental organisation, Voice of the Children (VOC), in a documentary shown in Kuala Lumpur two nights ago.
The documentary, titled “Stateless: Forgotten Children”, relates heart-rending stories of children who have no identity documents for various reasons and as a result, they are denied basic rights to education and healthcare.
The children are neglected by the authorities who lack the political will to solve the problem, activists and human rights lawyer N. Surendran said.
"They are also subjected to exploitation, harassment and abuse by public authorities. It is the federal government's policy of deliberate neglect.
"The authorities know the problem, they have the solution but they refuse to resolve it," he told The Malaysian Insider just before the screening of the documentary.
Surendran said the stateless children and their parents have been turned into a "hidden Malaysian problem" by Putrajaya despite its seriousness and impact on society at large.
"These kids either never get a chance to a proper education, or if they are admitted to the national school system, they have to register themselves as foreigners and pay a levy.
"And they don't get to go to university," he added.
VOC director Dr Hartini Zainudin, who is also the founder of Yayasan Chow Kit, spoke from personal experience when she related the story of her adopted daughter, six-year-old Zara, who was found in the company of people believed to be human traffickers. Zara was only two months old at the time.
Hartini has no other details about the child she has grown to love, including where Zara had come from.
And despite being a seasoned activist for children's rights, Hartini is afraid for her daughter's future.
"I am used to this kind of work, but in this case, I don't think I will ever be desensitised, I'm never going to be all right about this," she said in a voice choked with emotion.
Fitrah (not her real name), 22, knows only too well the horrors of not having identity documents. In her case, her parents had fled southern Philippines in 1976 during the war and made their home in a village in Sabah.
But because she has no documents, Fitrah was arrested and taken to a camp for illegal foreigners a few years ago. She was held there for a month before she was deported to Philippines, where she had no family or friends.
A month later, she managed to travel back to Sabah by boat to be with her family but lives in daily fear of being caught and deported again.
According to Surendran, checks a year ago showed that there were some 49,000 stateless children in Peninsular Malaysia, of whom more than 80% were Indians.
In addition, the National Registration Department (NRD) statistics revealed that there were 50,000 adults and children without documents in Sabah alone.
Surendran said every other day, he would get calls from parents asking for help to solve their problem of not having identity documents but he said his hands were tied as the "solution was in the hands of the ruling government".
"Ultimately, only Putrajaya can resolve this because the NRD comes under the Home Ministry. By streamlining policies on stateless children, they can easily grant these children the neccesary documents and citizenship," he said.
Surendran said that constitutional guarantees prohibit any child to be rendered stateless in Malaysia, as Article 14 states that a child born in the country becomes a citizen by operation of law "only if one parent is a citizen or permanent resident in Malaysia at the time of his or her birth, or if he or she is not born a citizen of any country".
"When we go to the NRD with these cases, they refuse to resolve it, and often just keep giving excuses when clearly, the solution lies with them," he said.
He related the case of K. Sarojini whose problem spanned three generations – her grandmother, her adult children and grandchildren were all stateless. The case was taken to court after appeals to NRD fell on deaf ears.
"Only after taking the matter to court did the Home Ministry offer a settlement and issued them identity cards.
"But it is impossible for us to take all such cases to court just to get their attention," Surendran said.
In that case, Letchumy, 70, and her daughters Mala, 45, and Sarojini, 33, had sought a court order to compel the NRD to issue them blue identity cards (MyKad) after a series of rejection based on claims that the trio were not citizens by law.
Letchumy, who was born in Tanjung Sepat, Selangor, only received permanent resident (PR) status last year although she had filed for citizenship in 2008.
Her claim for citizenship, however, was denied as the NRD refused to take into account the background of her birth place. But after the legal challenge was filed, the NRD issued the MyKad to Letchumy, Mala and Sarojini.
Sarojini's legal counsel, Eric Paulsen, who was present at the screening of the documentary, said that before the court challenge, the family had made numerous applications to NRD in the past 20 years. He claimed that in the last rejection letter, the NRD was "arrogant".
"The NRD letter not only said that their application had been rejected, but it stated that they should also not bother filing anymore applications," Paulsen said.
He said that he was puzzled by the way in which the Home Ministry was able to give out citizenship before a general election, but did not practise this policy at other times.
VoC chairperson Sharmila Sekaran, however, was hopeful that Putrajaya will take notice, and warned of the dire consequences of not finding an urgent solution to what she said was a "growing problem" involving the stateless children in Malaysia.
She said if not checked, the human rights issue of stateless persons could pose bigger risks in the form of economic liability and social problems.
Urging Putrajaya to take the lead in addressing the issue, Sharmila said: "We just want these stateless children to be given documents, a place to call home and a chance at life but clearly, the government has no political will to do so.
"Previously, we had gone to the Home Ministry with 16 cases of stateless children and they were given birth certificates last year.
"Even though these documents stated that they were non-citizens, we were made to understand that this was the path to obtaining citizenship, but this does not seem to be the case with the ministry now," she said.
As such, Sharmila said it was time to go back to the drawing board to work with the Home Ministry in seeking a solution to the case of stateless people.
She said as a start, all VoC wanted was for the children to be given documents rather than citizenship.
"We understand that there has to be a verification process before the government can grant citizenship.
"So we are proposing that these kids be given identification documents first, while the verification process is pending," she added.
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