PKR advances cases of stateless children at Penang NRD

GEORGE TOWN: The state National Registration Department headquarters on Anson Road was besieged on Friday when 41 families with children allegedly classified as "stateless" headed over to plead their case to go to school.
Their mission, together with assistance from PKR leaders, was to seek consent for enrolment into government schools as unforeseen circumstances have seen them continuing their lives here without the mandatory blue identity cards.
For now, they were either attending tuition classes, homeschooled or those who could afford it were studying at private institutions.
But the majority want to attend public schools, PKR's Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin said.
"The government needs to provide a path towards citizenship for such children. They are actually our citizens by nature; only not by documentation."
The children were buoyed after Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was reported as saying that public schools could accept the children temporarily if it was proven that one of their parents is a Malaysian.
But the bureaucracy aspects are bogging them down, said Sim.
Accompanying Sim was PKR's legal head N. Surendran, who is also the Padang Serai MP and the party's nationality bureau head Kumaresan Arumugam.
A spokesperson with the registration department said the affected families need to fill up some forms and they were to refer the matter to Putrajaya.
According to Kumaresan, there are an estimated 300,000 families nationwide, who are burdened with this stateless status.
Among their alleged offences were not registering the child's birth, marrying overseas and having their child born outside of the country.
"They are paying a hefty price for their ignorance," said Kumaresan.
Many also could not produce the necessary documentation; hence the delay in issuing their children with the citizenship papers.
Some of the children when interviewed, expressed hope that they can join friends from their neighbourhoods in schools soon.
One of them professed to want to be a doctor when he grows up while a young girl says that having an education is a basic human right.
Kumaresan said that PKR hopes to champion the issue at the national level soon.