NGO: Illogical so many Sabahans produced stateless kids

KENINGAU - Angkatan Perpaduan Sabah (APS) finds it hard to swallow that there are so many children in Sabah due to their parents' marrying foreigners to warrant giving them documents.

The NGO also expressed concern that such exercise can possibly be abused.

It threw its support on the issue of stateless children behind Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS) President Datuk Seri Wilfred Bumburing for his recent statement.

He suggested there be a comprehensive database on the stateless children, not legalising them.

He said this would ascertain the details of their parentage, particularly on the "Sabahan" parent.

"The law states that the citizenship of a child follows the citizenship of the mother. The authorities must satisfy themselves legally that the mothers are indeed genuine Sabahans," he reportedly said.

Kadau said Bumburing was right in calling on the government to come up with a comprehensive data base on the stateless children, instead of legalising them.

"We agree with Bumburing. He voiced out the people's objection to the proposed legalization. The government must listen to this,"he said.

Echoing similar calls by other leaders, Paul insisted that the government must first resolve the issue of illegal immigrants in Sabah first before trying to deal with the stateless children problem.

Bumburing recently called on the government to listen to the loud voices of the people who were against the proposed move to legalise stateless children in Sabah.

He stressed that the government had the paramount duty to safeguard the constitution and interest of Sabah when dealing with citizenship.

"The government owes it to the people by listening to the loud voices on the issue.

"The people voted them, among others, to safeguard the interest of Sabah. A blanket granting of citizenship to stateless kids, who are now mostly adults, disregard the due process of the law," he said in a statement.

He had said the people sympathised with the plight of the stateless kids which is the "product of the inaction of the previous governments."

"The influx of foreigners to Sabah in the past, with the government closing one eye brought this big burden on Sabah. For sure something needs to be done to address this issue," he said.