The Penang government has handled about 200 cases of "stateless Malaysians" in recent years and the fact the numbers are not going down frustrates Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy.

"Our committee worked very hard to address the statelessness, but there has been no major impact apart from changing the lives of 42 people," he told a press conference today.

Ramasamy, who heads the state government's Citizenship Assistance Committee, said the main stumbling block has been the National Registration Department (NRD)...