The Malaysian Insight

DEPUTY Home Minister Azis Jamman said children from unregistered marriages between Sabahans and foreigners is the cause of the high number of stateless people in Sabah.

Azis said this in reply to a supplementary question by Keningau MP and Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku president Dr Jeffrey Kitingan in Parliament today.

He said Sabah opposition leaders accused the Parti Warisan Sabah-led state government of using a to regulate illegal immigrants as an excuse to issue them Mykad.  

“This issue is played up by state opposition parties, accusing Warisan of giving illegal immigrants ICs.

“This is false. It never happened.

“The real problem is that Sabahans who wed migrants but never registered their marriages, and, therefore, their children cannot be categorised as Malaysians,” said the Sepanggar MP.

Jeffrey has asked about the government’s effort to address the problem of children of foreign migrants who cannot go to school in Sabah.  

Azis said the state government is trying to solve the problem, but the allegations from state opposition leaders made it difficult.

Sabah has the most number of migrants, and this was why Sabah Chief Minister Shafie Apdal had proposed to regulate them, he said.  

Sabah Immigration Department said non-Malaysians made up a third of the population in Sabah – 2,741,700 Malaysians and 1,158,300 foreigners.
Various pressure groups have claimed that there are more than stateless 800,000 people in Sabah.

“We are aware of this problem, but if there are no political will from all parties to deal with this issue, we will never see an end to this problem,” said Azis. – March 12, 2019.