On Statelessness. Have you wondered where stateless people are buried? I'm going to tell you a story. An old case of mine. of 4 children under 7 years old, who had to bury their Stateless mother in an unmarked grave outside Sepang. It took them a month to claim her body
I'm sure I've told this story. About a Stateless couple. Man was left in the backseat of a taxi. Foundling. Earned a living selling vegetables. I'm not sure who brought him up. Girlfriend/wife also stateless
Had 4 kids. All Stateless. Think blcouple did drugs. Fought a lot. I heard the man was violent. Got into a fight with the woman. Punched her hard. She was pregnant. Started bleeding. Left her at the hospital. She died.
Left 4 children motherless. 7 year old boy, 6 year old girl, 4 year old boy and 2 year old boy. Dad went on a drug binge. Sold 4 year old boy for rm800. I know I've told this story. Long story short...
Came to our attention. Dad was in jail. 2 year old was with him shelter for 4 months after we got him arrested for carrying no IC, not because trying to sell his 2 year old. Why I went ballistic and started VoC with 5 other lawyers. Mother's body was in a morgue for a month
No relatives. No documents. How to claim body. Also had to tell the 7 and 6 year old their mother died. So we lied. Pretended to be relatives of the mother so we could bury her. So the children could bury their mother.
The 7 year old had to identify his mother's body with staff. Staff cried. Told me when the 7 year old saw his mother's body, he said, ini bukan mak Aku. Mak Aku Putih. Mayat ini Hitam. He didn't recognize the body at first. It had turned black in the morgue.
We scrapped money together for a coffin. Buried her in an unmarked grave outside Sepang. Us and the 2 children. No name, no nationality, no mother, no father, no brothers. I got the 2 year old back from him 2 months later. He'd been in a govt shelter for 4 months.
So that's where poor people with no documents, including Stateless people die. And get buried.
So when people ask what the impact on Statelessness is- it's about misery and devestation . Of leaving children with no recourse in life. No protection, vulnerable to bring trafficked. No school, no health, no services. No life
In 2007, there was no Anti Trafficking Bill. Police would tell me, go home when I complained parents were selling their own children. In 2018, police still tell me to go home. There aren't many cases of babies and children being sold. Rescues? Nobody rescues children being sold
These children are rendered Stateless.
So we can talk law and wait and wait and wait. I know the impact on children and families. It has to stop. End childhood Statelessness
Childhood Statelessness makes no sense.It's cruel.Wrong.Doesn't deter people from coming here-they're already here, they're internally displaced and our children.Why deny education,health,services?The laws? The laws can be changed.Ignored. Look at SOAS2017.Useless
Useless when trying to enforce grooming violation in Child marriages so far. Boils down to lack of political will and stubbornness to change.
