KUALA LUMPUR – Stateless children should be included under the purview of the children’s commission, said Bukit Bendera MP Syerleena Abdul Rashid.
This is because stateless children are neither security threats to the country nor foreigners; they are instead the children of Malaysians who were denied their rights due to bureaucracy.
“Most of these stateless children face impossibly difficult bureaucratic hurdles, from intricate procedural prerequisites to an onerous burden of proof,” she said in a statement today.
“Stateless children are always put in a precarious situation outside of the country’s social system. They are often marginalised from receiving education, healthcare services, and social welfare needed – and these issues impact their growth negatively,”
Syerleena added that stateless children are often ostracised from society when they reach adulthood, denied rights to legal work, and miss opportunities to further their studies.
As such, their potential as individuals who can contribute to the nation is wasted.
While commending the government’s effort to clear the citizenship application backlog, Syerleena said it must also take proactive steps to solve the cause of the issue – and not merely treat its “symptoms”.
The DAP lawmaker said the establishment of the commission should also be completed soon.
Only the children’s commissioner, Dr Farah Nini Dusuki, has been appointed, effective March 10 this year.
Syeerlena said the commission should be answerable to Parliament through appropriate checks and balance mechanisms, via a special select committee, and have its annual report tabled in Parliament. – October 25, 2023