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Malaysia: Crackdown on migrants threatens stateless people
January 13, 2009 | Camilla Olson | Tagged as: Malaysia, Statelessness
This recent report by Al Jazeera highlights the particular concerns of stateless people in Sabah, Malaysia. The Malaysian government has begun a new crackdown on illegal migrants in Sabah who are mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia. Raids are conducted at night and those found without proper documents are arrested and deported. An unknown number of these migrants are potentially stateless, meaning that no country recognizes them as a citizen and they often do not have any identity documents or legal protection in the country where they are living.
When I visited Sabah in 2007, there was particular concern for street children vulnerable to statelessness. This concern is ongoing. In Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, children of migrants from the Philippines and Indonesia live on the streets and start working at a young age, often because their parents have been deported by the Malaysian authorities. Most of these children were born in Sabah. However, because their parents are illegal migrants, they were not registered for birth certificates and they are without identity cards.
In the crackdown that is going on right now, it’s possible that even more children will be abandoned and left without any protection when their parents are arrested and sent back home. Furthermore, if these children are detained and deported themselves, and if their country of origin does not recognize them as a national, they will face similar problems to what they endure in Sabah.
The Malaysian Government is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and has a responsibility to ensure that migrant children, particularly those who are born in Sabah, are protected. This memorandum was written by several Malaysian human rights groups concerned about the crackdown on illegal migrants in Sabah. International attention must be focused on the deportations in Sabah in order to highlight the abuses that are taking place and force the government of Malaysia to deal with the underlying issues of illegal migration in the country, particularly for those vulnerable to statelessness.
-Camilla Olson
When I visited Sabah in 2007, there was particular concern for street children vulnerable to statelessness. This concern is ongoing. In Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, children of migrants from the Philippines and Indonesia live on the streets and start working at a young age, often because their parents have been deported by the Malaysian authorities. Most of these children were born in Sabah. However, because their parents are illegal migrants, they were not registered for birth certificates and they are without identity cards.
In the crackdown that is going on right now, it’s possible that even more children will be abandoned and left without any protection when their parents are arrested and sent back home. Furthermore, if these children are detained and deported themselves, and if their country of origin does not recognize them as a national, they will face similar problems to what they endure in Sabah.
The Malaysian Government is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and has a responsibility to ensure that migrant children, particularly those who are born in Sabah, are protected. This memorandum was written by several Malaysian human rights groups concerned about the crackdown on illegal migrants in Sabah. International attention must be focused on the deportations in Sabah in order to highlight the abuses that are taking place and force the government of Malaysia to deal with the underlying issues of illegal migration in the country, particularly for those vulnerable to statelessness.
-Camilla Olson
Labels: Sabah, statelessness
