Kota Kinabalu: Civil society organisations Cahaya Society and Borneo Komrad called on the Federal Government to implement immediate and comprehensive citizenship reforms to address the plight of thousands of undocumented children in Sabah.
They were responding to Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail’s statement that the government was ready to assist in documentation for paperless children in the State.
“We welcome the acknowledgement that children should not be punished due to unregistered marriages of their parents or weaknesses in the existing system,” the group said in a joint statement.
However, they said that ministerial assurances must be translated into concrete action rather than general promises.
They pointed out that thousands of children born and raised in Sabah continue to face exclusion from basic education, healthcare, safety and mobility due to bureaucratic factors including traditional or unregistered marriages, missing data, and absence of birth records.
“These children are subsequently denied access to essential services such as schools, health clinics, and social welfare.
“Thousands have become victims of policies that are inconsistent and insensitive to the lived realities of vulnerable communities,” they said.
While acknowledging the establishment of the Special Committee on Citizenship Status mentioned by the Minister, Cahaya Society and Borneo Komrad said more comprehensive reforms must be expedited.
The groups are calling for simplified late birth registration processes without penalising children, proactive document-tracing approaches instead of waiting for families to come forward and guaranteed universal access to education for all children regardless of documentation status in line with Malaysia’s commitments under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
They also demanded standardised standard operating procedures across agencies including the National Registration Department, Social Welfare Department, hospitals and schools to ensure decisions do not depend on individual interpretation.
The organisations further called for transparency in the citizenship committee through annual reports detailing the number of applications, approvals, rejections and the reasons for each decision.
“What is needed now is not another statement that the government is ‘ready to assist’, but a concrete action plan, consistent, transparent and time-bound,” they said.
The groups said that citizenship reform must be treated as an urgent necessity aligned with the values of Malaysia Madani envisioned by the Federal Government, pointing out that every child deserves to live with dignity regardless of documentation status, economic background or ethnic group.
