PUTRAJAYA: The Welfare Department will issue a special identity card for all stateless children under the care of its welfare homes.
Announcing the move, Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Rohani Abdul Karim said the special ID would resolve a lot of documentation issues faced by stateless children under its care, especially after they leave the department’s children’s homes at the age of 18.
“We will prepare their special ID cards as soon as possible,” Rohani told reporters after a closed door dialogue with 26 former residents of its children’s homes this afternoon.
“This card will complement the official letters that we issue to them after they turn 18 and have to leave our homes when they reach adulthood as stated by the law.”
With the special ID cards, stateless orphans can apply for jobs or further their education without much hassle while waiting for their citizenship status to be approved, Rohani assured.
Currently, there are about 246 stateless children who are registered with the Welfare Department.
The department is in the process of tracking down those above the age of 18 who have ‘graduated’ from its welfare homes across the country.
“This special ID will help us keep track of them. So I encourage the children who have left our welfare institutions to register with us in order to get their special ID cards,” Rohani added.
She pointed out that a special cabinet paper on the betterment of stateless children’s welfare has already been submitted.
Rohani said she would be meeting the prime minister and deputy prime minister to further discuss the matter.
“We (the Welfare Department) are their parents. We try our best to resolve various problems that they face in life because of their stateless and paperless status.”
Relating his personal experience of being detained by the police because he did not have an identity card, president of the Social Welfare Association (PERBAK Malaysia) Muhammad Khairul Hafiz, said proper documentation is a serious issue faced by stateless children in the country and more needs to be done to help these children.
Echoing the same sentiment, his counterpart from the Former JKM Institutions Resident Association (J'Keb) Che Rozi Azrul Che Aziz, said the society should be more supportive towards stateless children.
“We are not asking for sympathy. We just want people to understand our predicament of not having proper documents like a birth certificate and assist us in living a normal life and to be emotionally and financially independent,” he said.