GEORGE TOWN, Jan 11 ― An Immigration Department circular that prevents stateless children from attending public schools unless they provide passports, have led to six children being barred from attending schools in Penang.
Three of these children were already studying in public schools and were supposed to start Standard Three, Five and Six this year.
“They were suddenly told that they can’t go back to school unless they furnish a passport which doesn’t make sense as they are stateless so they can’t apply for passports,” PKR’s stateless programme coordinator A. Kumaresan told reporters at the state education department today.
Three others were supposed to start school this year but were suddenly told that they can’t go to school unless they provided their passports.
“The Immigration Department must revoke this ridiculous ruling because these are stateless children, they are in the midst of applying for citizenship, obviously they don’t have passports and can’t apply for one until their citizenship is sorted out,” he said.
One of the children’s father, Loh Wei Hun, said his two children, aged six and seven, were listed as “non citizen” on their birth certificates.
“My wife is from China but I am a Malaysian, I don’t know why they are not listed as Malaysians so this means they are not citizens of any country,” he said.
Loh said he had obtained a court order and conducted DNA tests to apply for Malaysian citizenships for his children.
“Till now, the National Registration Department has not given me an answer to my application which I made a few years ago,” he said.
His son, Lim Choon Yik, is seven this year and was supposed to start Standard One while his second son, Lim Choon Ling will start school next year.
The five other children who could not attend school due to the Immigration passport requirement are Tan Ping Siew, 12, Yusri Looi, 7, Kong Poh Yee, 7, Sindi Claudia Looi, 9, and Lee Chun Kiet, 7.
Kumaresan said these children are probably not the only ones affected by the immigration ruling.
“I am sure there are many others elsewhere in the country facing the same problem,” he said.
Kumaresan accompanied the parents of the children to the state education department in Bukit Gambier here today to sort out the issue but to no avail.
“The officer said they can’t do anything due to the Immigration Department’s circular, so we are now appealing to the Immigration Department to revoke the circular immediately,” he said.
Kumaresan said he will file a suit against the Immigration Department to have the circular legally revoked if they do not remove the ruling immediately.
“We are talking about the education of children here, they are born here with at least one Malaysian parent each so they should be allowed to continue schooling,” he said.
