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THE Society for Rights of Indigenous Peoples of Sarawak (Scrips) has called on the government and community leaders to be stringent in preventing foreign workers from marrying locals, particularly native girls in rural Sarawak.
Over the past decades, cases of foreign male workers marrying local native women in rural Sarawak have been blatant, contributing to the statelessness problem, said Scrips Secretary-General Michael Jok.
"Most of these so-called marriages are not registered with the National Registration Department (NRD), and the children from these 'marriages' end up unregistered and often without any birth certificate," he told The Vibes today.
"There are tens of thousands of foreign workers in plantations and logging areas in Sarawak, especially from Indonesia. There are also more foreign workers from India, Pakistan, and Myanmar. The cases of foreign men marrying local native women are becoming more frequent. These so-called marriages are almost always unregistered with the NRD. The couple simply live together in the plantations and have children. To make matters even worse, many of the local native women 'married' to foreign workers also lack proper personal documents."
"The children from such marriages with foreign workers then end up as a new generation of stateless children in Sarawak. If this is not complicated enough, most of the foreign male workers are usually in Sarawak for only a few years. After their contracts end, they just leave, abandoning their local 'wife' and children."
"The children who are stateless will, in the future, have problems trying to convince the NRD that they are indeed born in Sarawak and are not illegal migrants. Such is the complexity and sheer magnitude of the statelessness situation in Sarawak. The state government must seriously consider enacting strict laws preventing foreign workers coming to Sarawak on contracts from marrying locals without going through the NRD process," he said.
Jok was commenting on the issue of stateless people who are desperately trying to register with the NRD mobile units that have been deployed to several locations in Miri and Belaga districts.
In Miri, hundreds of stateless people turned up daily from 20 to 30 November last year to meet the NRD mobile teams at the Miri Civic Centre, but most of them could not register with the NRD counters due to their sheer number.
Sarawak United Peoples' Party Secretary-General Datuk Sebastian Ting had expressed shock at the number of stateless people who had come to Miri. He acknowledged that the statelessness situation is much worse than anticipated by the state government. Ting said he is preparing a report to the higher-ups in the state and federal governments to see how they can be more effective and thorough in their outreach to seek out the stateless.
Jok today said statelessness increases every year when stateless adults get 'married' and have children without resolving their citizenship issues.
"Decades upon decades of such stateless cases have multiplied. It is indeed a big problem," he said.
The Home Ministry and the Sarawak government are doubling their efforts to reach very rural areas to seek out the stateless and register them. – August 28, 2024.
