Solution in RCI report: Zahid
Published on: Thursday, October 30, 2014
KUALA LUMPUR: The issue of stateless children in Sabah will be addressed once the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants has been tabled in Parliament, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.He said for now, the children will be given birth certificates for schooling purposes as it was humane to do so.The Minister was responding to a question by Alice Lau (DAP-Lanang) in Parliament Wednesday, but did not say when the findings of the RCI would be tabled.
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He only mentioned that investigations were completed and that the solution to the issue of the stateless children is contained within the report.Zahid said that his ministry and the National Registration Department had to review the issue of giving certification to stateless children on a case-by-case basis.This was because some of them, although born in Malaysia, had parents who were foreigners. There were also those who were born to parents whose marriages were not registered under local law.Sabah opposition lawmakers had called for Putrajaya to make public the RCI report on illegal immigrants in the State that was submitted to the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong in May this year.
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The commission, which was set up on Sept 21, 2012, called 211 witnesses in the proceedings which ended on September 20 last year.Among the notable witnesses were former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and former Chief Ministers of Sabah, including Tan Sri Harris Salleh and Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan.
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Najib announced on June 1, 2012, that Putrajaya had agreed to set up the RCI to investigate problems related to illegals in Sabah, including issuing Malaysian documents to Muslim illegals under a scheme known as "Project IC".To a supplementary question by Datuk Dr Marcus Makin Mojigoh (BN-Putatan), who said that many stateless children were found loitering, working in car wash centres and construction sites in Sabah instead of being in school, Zahid said he was willing to go to the ground to resolve the issue.He said that in some cases, Muslim couples went to the "north" to get married and did not register their marriages for fear that their first wives would find out while non-Muslims were also known to marry "China dolls" who eventually returned to their country of origin.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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