Many stateless individuals in Sarawak yet to apply for citizenship, says PKR Sarawak

MIRI (Aug 21): Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sarawak believes that there are still many stateless individuals in Sarawak who have yet to apply for citizenship.

Its chairman Roland Engan said that while they commend the Home Ministry and the special committee’s proactive effort in collecting the data relating to stateless individuals, there are still many more stateless individuals who are not listed in the data due to geographical factors and cost to come down to register.

“It is therefore more systematic and easier to collect these data if all community leaders in respective villages keep the birth and death records of their own people, and for them to deal proactively with representatives from the National Registration Department (NRD) on matters related to the registration of identity cards (ICs),” he said in a statement yesterday.

He reasoned that this approach would help to identify genuine applications before being processed by the NRD.

On the role of PKR Sarawak relating to this issue, Roland said all 31 branches in the state have been tasked to raise the issue of statelessness to the Home Ministry.

“This, however, will be coordinated in a more organised manner in the near future,” he added.