PARLIAMENT There are 290,437 stateless children in Malaysia who are below the age of 18, says Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He was responding to a question in Parliament from N Surendran (PKR-Padang Serai), who asked the breakdown of children between the ages of one to 18, who are born in Malaysia but do not have Malaysian citizenship and the breakdown according to racial lines.

“There are 290,437 children who are between one and 18 years old who are born in Malaysia but are not given Malaysian citizenship.

“These are foreigners and they are born not according to the country's racial lines but based on the country of origin of their parents. The bulk of these stateless children have parents from Indonesia, Philippines and Myanmar,” he said