"How Many Rejections Does She Have To Go Through?"- Asks Tearful Mum Of Stateless Girl
The girl's parents hope the Malaysian government will grant her citizenship.
By Sadho Ram — 28 Mar 2019, 05:57 PM
This is Rachel Sia, a 19-year-old stateless girl from Sarawak.
In 1999, a few days after she was born in Sibu, Peter Sia Chew Ong and Lau Kui Fua adopted her, becoming her legal parents.
However, Rachel remains stateless as her application for a citizenship to the Malaysian Government has repeatedly been rejected, denying her a Malaysian identity card.
Rachel's mother appealing to the state and federal governments, while narrating her daughter's pain.
Image via Giphy via Dayak DailyRachel, who dreams of becoming a pianist and to travel beyond Sarawak, cannot even lead a normal life because she is stateless
According to Rachel's adoptive parents, they had previously sent in four applications to the National Registration Department (NRD), officially known as the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) for Rachel's citizenship, with the most recent being in 2017.
While Rachel has a birth certificate, it does not state the names of her biological parents.
Dayak Daily reported that there is no trace of her biological parents, as her birth certificate was taken away and cancelled by JPN when Rachel was 12.
At that time, she had tried to apply for her MyKad so that she could sit for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM). However, while Rachel was issued a new birth certificate bearing her adoptive or legal parents' details, she could not sit for her SPM.
Since then, the family has been trying to apply to JPN for Rachel's citizenship.
According to Dayak Daily, the department asked the family to wait, but it has been nine years and Rachel's parents see no resolution to their appeal.