KUCHING, March 16 — Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari today said that the state Ministry of Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development is currently conducting a study on the number of stateless children in Sarawak.

He said the study would also touch on why the children were not issued with official documents, such as birth certificates or why married couples did not register their marriages with the National Registration Department (NRD).

"Ultimately, it is the families themselves who have to sort out their own problems, " he said at the handing over of temporary documents to stateless individuals in Sarawak (DSITS) here.

He said the Resident and District Offices can help stateless individuals to apply for Malaysian citizenship and register the marriages of unregistered couples.

The premier also urged the community leaders to pay attention to families in their longhouses and villages who have children, but whose births were not registered with the NRD.

"This is an important matter and the community leaders can help parents so we can get accurate figures on the number of stateless children in the state,” he said.

He said there are parents who did not register their marriages due to personal matters, but ultimately the victims are their children.

He added that the state government is very concerned with stateless children as they cannot have access to free education and medical treatment at government facilities.

It is for this reason that the state government has come up with a formula by issuing them with temporary documents to enable them to attend school and get medical treatment.

The Home Ministry has given the approval for the state government to issue the temporary documents.

"The stateless children are issued with DSITS while waiting for the applications for Malaysian citizenship to be approved by the federal government,” he said.

State Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Minister Datuk Sri Fatimah Abdullah said between November 1, 2022 and March 10 this year, her ministry received a total of 394 applications for DSITS.

She said 175 out of 394 were approved for meeting the conditions while 219 others did not.