They were born and raised in Malaysia, as were their parents and their grandparents before them.

Malaysia is their country and yet, they do not have any documentation as proof and thus, are not considered citizens.

Lacking official papers, these children cannot access rights citizens take for granted, such as education, employment, and healthcare.

These were the stories told at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) exhibition on child statelessness titled 'I Am Here, I Belong: The Urgent Need to End Childhood Statelessness' last night in Kuala Lumpur.

One young woman who only wanted to be known as Thachaayeny recounted how she was asked to stop schooling two weeks before she was supposed to take her SPM examination.

She was then asked to pay RM250 to take the examination as a private individual, which she could not afford.

This is because she did not have any official documentation that identified her as a Malaysian citizen.

"My birth certificate says ‘bukan warganegara’ (non-citizen). My mother tried to get my status changed, but it could not be done. I don't know why," she said.

Even though she eventually managed to take the SPM examinations, she cannot find a job as she has no identification documents, she lamented.

However, with the help of NGO Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (DHRRA), she hopes to get her Malaysian identification soon.

"If DHRRA helps me get my identification, I will definitely work to help other stateless people get their identification as well.

"Everyone should have an identity," said Thachaayeny.

‘Telling through human stories’

Speaking at the exhibition with the help of a translator, another girl, known only as Letchumy, was one of five siblings who did not have her Malaysian identification. She, too, does not know why.

With the help of DHRRA, Letchumy said she finally received her identification recently.

She hopes that no one else has to suffer through what she had to go through before she got her identification.

Executive director of DHRRA Nantini Ramalo said her organisation has helped over 12,000 stateless people in Malaysia and submitted close to 4,500 cases to the authorities.

These cases are expected to take around two to three years to be processed, she said.

"It is easy to explain complex issues like statelessness if we explain it through human stories," she said, adding that this is why the exhibition showcases several individuals and their stories of being stateless.

Spokesperson for UNHCR Richard Towle said that stateless people are not refugees or foreigners, as they do not have connections to any other homeland.

"It's different from being a refugee; they (refugees) will still maintain a connection with their homeland but stateless people have lost even that.

"They're not foreigners or refugees. They're born and raised here in Malaysia and yet they're not citizens," he said.

Towle explained that sometimes it is not that the law does not allow for stateless people to apply for identification, it is the lack of knowledge about the law.

Hence, the work that NGOs like DHRRA does is very important, said Towle, adding that the UNHCR works with many similar NGOs all over the world.

The exhibition is part of a two-day event in UNHCR’s Global Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024.

Held at White Box, Publika, in Kuala Lumpur, it opens today and ends tomorrow. Admission is free.