Family anxiously waits for hearing date to stop Malaysian-born kids' deportation

 

Activists and the family of three Malaysian-born boys, aged seven to 12, are waiting anxiously for a court date for a habeas corpus hearing to stay a deportation order for the children who have been held in immigration detention for three weeks.

Activist Hartini Zainudin said the Immigration Department earlier told their family that the boys, whose mother is also Malaysian-born and holds a green identity card, were to be deported to Indonesia.

According to Hartini, the mother is the oldest of her siblings, who are all Malaysian citizens.

She added that it is unclear why she is the only one with a green IC.

However, lawyers for the family have filed a habeas corpus application to stay the deportation order and are still waiting for a hearing date, which they hope will come before the boys are sent to Indonesia.

“It’s crazy,” said Hartini, who is the founder of Yayasan Chow Kit, a non-profit organisation that caters to the needs of underprivileged and at-risk children and teenagers in and around the Chow Kit in Kuala Lumpur.

“The court has yet to fix a hearing date despite our lawyers pushing for it to be heard urgently.

“The court is expected to fix a hearing on Thursday. We’ll know tomorrow,” she told Malaysiakini.

Hartini said the mother and children were detained at an immigration raid at the beginning of July, where they found that the mother’s legal documents were not renewed last year.

According to a report by The Malay Mail, the mother, a green identification card holder, is entitled to Malaysian citizenship but has yet to be given such status.

The mother is not named in the news report to protect her identity.

Those born in Malaysia but whose citizenship cannot be verified will be given an identity card with a green colour indicator to reflect temporary residence status.

This group of people are considered to be “stateless”. Being stateless means that the family of four are not citizens of any country, including Indonesia.

The mother explained that she and her children were all stateless people who were born in Malaysia and had never left the country in their whole lives.

She requested a stay against any deportation on the grounds that she had cause to think they would be taken out of Malaysia and deported to Indonesia.

The family was detained as the National Registration Department had rejected the mother’s bid to renew her temporary identification documents.

The mother was arrested at 1.15am on July 1, and her three young children were also detained at that time as they were all below 12, The Malay Mail reported.

In hopes of assisting the family, Hartini has reached out to Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin but has yet to hear back.

“It’s so wrong to detain and deport them because they were born in Malaysia and have never been to Indonesia.

“It will tear their family apart,” she said.

In the run-up to 2018’s general election, Pakatan Harapan promised to simplify the process of granting citizenship to stateless children once taking over Putrajaya.

The Harapan government later granted citizenship to red identity card holders aged 60 years and above and allowed stateless children to enrol in public schools, while in Sabah, it assisted stateless children with one Malaysian parent in obtaining legal documents.

Last April, DAP’s Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching proposed that the government grant citizenship to all stateless children whose father is Malaysian if they can provide DNA evidence. - Mkini