Participants at a conference on statelessness gave their unanimous vote today for the issue to be brought to the fore of the national agenda.

Statelessness, the condition of being undocumented or unregistered, is said to affect at least one in every 20 Indian families with its consequent effects on the concerned individual's access to health, education, employment and housing, among other rights.

Realising, however, that the problem affects more than just the Indian community, those who attended the event at the Legend Hotel in Kuala Lumpur called for the government to tackle and regard the issue as a national problem as opposed to being merely an 'ethnic problem.'

The organiser of the conference, non-governmental organisation Era Consumer Malaysia, said it would highlight the problem to the government in a memorandum containing all the recommendations reached by the participants.

"We will send the memorandum to all the relevant parties, including the home minister, Parliament, as well as its backbenchers," said Era secretary-general Indrani Thurasingam at the end of the one-day conference entitled 'Statelessness: An Obstacle to Economic Empowerment.'

Among the practical steps that the government can take is to set up a parliamentary select committee to tackle the problem of undocumented people regardless of their origin.

The state is responsible

Earlier, human rights lawyer and activist Ramdas Tikamdas said the government was under international and national obligations to recognise the category of hitherto stateless people.

"It is of most concern and most grievance that ... illegal migrant workers or refugees or people seeking political asylum, for these people there are international institutions to cater for their plight," he said in his speech.

"But who is responsible for the people within our own borders? Only the state can be answerable to these people," he added.

Another speaker, head of the European Commission delegation to Malaysia Thierry Rommel, also expressed shock that an issue of such proportions existed in the country.

"Malaysia, of course, ranks amongst the highest in the region in terms of its total birth registration rates, between 94 to even 96 percent based on Unicef figures. This is a remarkable achievement.

"The country also has one of the most sophisticated computerised systems for national registration records," he said.

"Yet, despite that, there are certain parts of the population who may still be left out of the system," he added.

In his opening address, MIC vice-president S Veerasingam vowed on behalf of the India-based party that it would look into the conference's findings.

"We (MIC)... will facilitate whatever legal remedies and prevention measures necessary in combating the problem of statelessness among the Malaysian Indians," said Veerasingam.

Cut down red tape

The other recommendations that targeted the government included the need to cut down on red tape and bureaucracy as well as the provision of temporary identification documents to those in critical need of such.

The overwhelming majority of the 150-odd participants were members and leaders from the Indian community, reflecting the fact that more than 20,000 Indians are legally or officially inexistent.

They also recommended that voluntary organisations work to increase public awareness and appreciation for the rights of members of communities such as the Indian community and to convey the importance for such communities of being accepted as a component part of the country.

Related to this was the suggestion that civil societies themselves embark on an education campaign to educate not just the public but civil servants on the importance of being registered and possessing identification documents.

Conferences and discussions should also be held by and between the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, other UN agencies and government agencies, they said.