Special task force’s operation to handle statelessness in S’wak extended, says Home Minister

KUCHING (Aug 17): The operation of the Special Task Force (PPK) to address the statelessness issue in Sarawak is set to be extended, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

According to him, the extension of the task force’s operation, which was initially set to conclude on Aug 23 this year, was decided following a meeting with Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg.

“This will allow us to cover several zones where we have yet to complete the collection of applications and approval process,” he said during a press conference after co-chairing a special committee meeting on Citizenship and Issuance of Temporary Documents for Stateless Individuals at Pullman Kuching here today.

Saifuddin added that this initiative reflects the government’s responsibility to provide identification documents to its people without compromising legal or security concerns.

“It is a step towards ensuring those who are citizens of this country have proper identification documents,” he said.

Adding on, Saifuddin revealed a total of 13,012 applications for identification documents had been received by the special committee and that 5,243 out of them have been approved, while the remaining ones are still being processed.

“We issued birth certificates to these applicants, aged 12 years and below, and for those with citizenship status, we issued MyKads without having the ‘K’ indicator imprinted.

“There were also applicants aged 12 and above who were issued birth certificates listing them as non-citizens and the green MyKas card,” he explained.

Saifuddin stressed that the most important thing is that, as a first step to the citizenship application process, these individuals now have some form of identification, when previously they had none at all.

Also present were Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Minister Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah, deputy minister Datuk Rosey Yunus and permanent secretary Datu Felicia Tan.