PETALING JAYA: The stateless in the country are facing a desperate situation, according to Maalini Ramalo of the Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas, Malaysia (DHRRA)
She said they not only risked falling into deeper poverty, they also faced hurdles with vaccination registration as they had incomplete or no identification documents.
Maalini noted that many stateless pre-independence born individuals who were holding a red IC had been given priority under the Covid-19 vaccination programme.
However vaccination registration for those under 60 remained a big problem, she told FMT.
“In terms of challenges, there are many people who are undocumented. Their birth registrations have not been done for various reasons: they don’t have parents, they don’t know how to do it, or they lack documents to prove they are citizens,” she said.
She said when the National Registration Department (NRD) moved its operations online, their citizenship appeal process was even further delayed.
The stateless in Sabah especially will be affected as they will be unable to produce the basic identification documents needed to register with MySejahtera.
She said the DHRRA was hoping to work with the government to help stateless persons have access to the national vaccination programme so that no one would be left behind.
Economic implications
Noting that the stateless had been economically disadvantaged even before the pandemic, Maalini said their situation had worsened due to the prolonged movement restrictions.
For instance, those who have some form of documentation and are employed have reported problems getting through MCO roadblocks.
“They are requested to give ID or approval letters, and even if they have approval letters, their employers are called in and asked why their employee doesn’t have a proper IC etc,” she said.
“This makes them a liability to employers and companies who are also facing cash flow problems. Some people have lost their jobs because their bosses feel it’s better not to have a stateless person on staff at this time.”
Welfare aid
She said the stateless had also been left out from the various government stimulus and welfare packages announced over the past year.
“Particularly for the stateless, in terms of getting approval (for aid), the rejection rate has been high. We also don’t have any communication with the NRD or the home ministry in terms of policy amendments during the lockdowns, so everything has been very slow.”
She said as far as vaccination was concerned, the government was willing to ensure everyone in the country was vaccinated but when it came to giving aid to the poor or emergency aid, it was “citizens first”.
Unfortunately, she said the stateless did not have anyone to support them.
She suggested a single-point disaster management system where the government worked with NGOs on the ground to distribute aid, and for the aid to be inclusive regardless of citizenship status.
At the moment, she said, private individuals and NGOs were all moving in silos, working within their respective communities, leading to some cases of duplication and overlap of recipients.
“NGOs are willing to work with the government and we want to contribute towards having a synchronised system and database to avoid duplication.”
The DHRRA is presently seeking donations help the stateless.
“Stateless people are still people who were born in this country or who have been adopted by Malaysian parents. Malaysian families get affected too just because of a stateless person in their family.
“We need to support them through this period. It is unfortunate that the stateless are always left behind.”
She feared that the extended movement restrictions under the National Recovery Plan might lead to more pregnancies with families or live-in couples staying home for longer periods of time.
“Some of the babies could be born as ‘stateless’ due to existing citizenship laws, which deny citizenship to babies born to Malaysian mothers and their foreign spouses, or to Malaysian fathers if their children are born out of wedlock.” - FMT
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