NGOs call for solution to ‘stateless children’, ready to work with relevant parties

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KUALA LUMPUR: Three failed attempts to get an identity card has left a Sarawak-born student in a quandary over her desire to pursue higher education abroad.

Riana Mae Christopher Bakar, 19, wants to be a lawyer and did not know where else to turn to except the media. Her plight is that, although her father is a local, her mother is a Filipina, by virtue of which, her birth certificate was stamped ‘Bukan Warganegara’ or non-citizen.

To add to the dilemma, her parents failed to register their marriage before she was born.

“Since 12 years old, I had been trying to get an identity card but my three applications were not approved,” she lamented.

Riana is among probably thousands of children born ‘stateless’ because one of their parents happened to be a foreigner.

Meanwhile, Malaysia International Humanitarian Organisation president Dr Noorazman Mohd Samsuddin said the relevant parties should find a new approach to fix the problem.

“This issue should be duly resolved so that it will not spill onto the next generation. It is not fair to punish these children because of their parents’ mistake or negligence,” he said.

Expressing similar views, Malaysian Muslim Consumers Association leader Datuk Nadzim Johan hoped the relevant parties would review the existing law to minimise the red tape involved.

“Non-governmental organisations are prepared to assist the relevant parties in finding a solution to this perennial issue,” he said. — Bernama