30,000 stateless kids in Sabah

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KOTA KINABALU: There are about 30,000 stateless kids in Sabah.

According to Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) psychology and education faculty professor Dr Vincent Pang, the stateless kids were born of foreign parents or migrant workers who failed to register their birth at their respective consulates.

However, there are also incidences of stateless kids amongst locals in Sabah, he said.

“People, particularly in the rural areas fail to realise the importance of legal documents,” he said.

As a result, parents do not see the necessity of registering their children’s birth with the relevant government departments, he said.

He added that efforts to register the birth were also hampered due to the distance involved between the rural villages and the nearest agency.

Other groups of stateless kids are those born of single moms, he said.

In the country, it is estimated that there are 50,000 stateless kids.

However, Dr Vincent mentioned that it was difficult to get the exact number.

He also stressed the difficulties facing the stateless kids in getting a formal education in Malaysia.