Fatimah (centre), flanked by Sharifah Hasidah (left) and Dr Abdul Rahman, explains a point at the press conference. — Photo by Chimon Upon
KUCHING: A total of 2,884 out of 4,098 applications for identification documents have been approved as of Dec 31 last year.
The applications were made in 63 operations conducted by a special taskforce set up since August 2015 to solve the problem of Sarawakians not having official identification documents.
Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah revealed that the remaining 1,214 applications were not approved due to several reasons such as not being verified by village heads or community leaders and applicants were born outside Sarawak.
She noted that the joint operations had brought about a strategic cooperation between the state National Registration Department and the state Education Department to identify children without identification documents, especially in schools.
“From the strategic cooperation between the two departments, it was found that 1,297 pupils did not have birth certificates and other identification documents.
“From that total, 687 were found to be citizens, while 79 were non-citizens. A total of 96 have not had their status determined, while 435 do not have complete or accurate information.
“We will continue to go down to the ground to ensure that the problem will be solved so that our children can go to school. The first outreach programme is to SK Batu Balai in Sebauh because it has been found that 45 pupils there do not have documents,” she said in a press conference after chairing a meeting on children with citizenship and documentation issues yesterday.
Another concern is that the strategic partnership could only cover those who are in school, but not those who do not attend school.
As such, Fatimah urged for cooperation from community leaders as well as the parents themselves by coming forward to apply for identification documents for the children.
Earlier, the minister explained about stateless children.
“The application for citizenship takes a long time, which would affect the children’s schooling and that in turn affects their future. We want these children to have proper citizenship status.
“However, the special committee formed last September to handle stateless children cases can only facilitate the applications.
“The final decision lies with the Home Ministry in Putrajaya,” she said.
Meanwhile, the State Attorney-General’s Office will be conducting a workshop on the standard operating procedure for child adoption.
Fatimah said the workshop will ensure that anybody, particularly couples, who want to adopt children know what procedure to follow.
“One of the causes of no identification documents is because adoption was not done properly. Other causes could be because the marriage of the parents was not proper or the child was born out of wedlock.
“So what comes first? Important thing is to adopt the child first. It is the basis to manage the citizenship status and identification documents of the child,” she said.
Present were Assistant Minister for Early Childhood Education and Family Development Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali and Assistant Minister for Welfare and Community Wellbeing Dr Abdul Rahman Ismail.