KUCHING, March 5 — A task force must be urgently formed to look into each individual case of stateless children in the country and to grant them the relevant identification papers on compassionate grounds, said social activist Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.

Lee said the government had in recent years highlighted the number of stateless children in the country to be about 290,000 but no permanent solution seems to be forthcoming to resolve this issue.

“A compassionate approach is very much needed to help these deserving stateless children for their future well-being,” he said in a statement.

Lee said stateless children were deprived of the rights to education in public schools and free medical care, and this had exposed them to be easily exploited and abused.

“There are cases of other non-citizens who have been granted permanent stay in Malaysia, and we should be able to offer similar rights to those who were born here but, through no fault of theirs, are deprived of their rights.

Lee said children who are classified as stateless have legitimate rights but they only lack the proper documentation to prove it.

“Their rights are legitimate. They only lack the proof. And they will be grateful for small mercies. It has been said that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice. Justice delayed is justice denied,” said Lee.

On a separate matter, Lee said 29 foreign workers had been arrested recently for possessing fake identification cards (ICs) which they claimed to have acquired from an undetermined syndicate for RM300 each.

“The fact that these fake ICs are close replicas of the genuine cards and are only discernible under ultraviolet light makes it doubly difficult to determine the extent of this forgery,” he remarked, adding that it was difficult to trace the syndicate because the fakes were delivered to the applicants by unsuspecting e-hailing riders.

The arrests of the 29 foreign workers were made following a special operation conducted by the National Registration Department.

As a result of the scam, he said illegal workers will use the fake ICs to cause a strain on the resources and services meant for the citizens of the country and this requires the authorities more time to determine the total number of foreigners with fake ICs in the country. — Borneo Post