Law or policy reform enabling acquisition of nationality by registration
rates.48 This data will assist the Malaysian Government in finding larger scale solutions
for the remaining stateless populations.
Malaysian Indian Blueprint to resolve statelessness and
documentation issues
In 2017, the Prime Minister’s Office published the Malaysian Indian Blueprint which
includes a target to ‘resolve statelessness and documentation issues’ of persons of
Indian descent living in Malaysia within five years.49 This was the first time a government
document officially acknowledged the issue of statelessness in Malaysia.
Following the Blueprint, the Government launched a major registration campaign, ‘Mega
MyDaftar’, in June 2017. DHRRA accompanied the national registration authorities on
the ground to provide information and advice to applicants. Through the project, more
than 2,000 applications obtained documentary proof of citizenship and legal status50 of
which 1,054 people were granted citizenship.51
In 2018, the Malaysian Government committed to resolve statelessness amongst the
Indian community within 100 days of being in office.52 While the commitment was initially
limited to stateless persons of Indian descent, the Government later announced that the
policy would apply to affected persons of all ethnicities.53 As part of this commitment
the Malaysian Prime Minister announced in August 2018 that the Government would
48 DHRRA Malaysia, “Monthly Bulletin”, April 2016, available at: https://dhrramalaysia.org.my/publications/dhrra-buletinapril-2016/
49 Para 4 of “Update on statelessness”, Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme, 69th Meeting of the
Standing Committee, 7 June 2017.
50 Joseph Kaos Jr, “Claim of 300,000 stateless Indians baseless, says MIC, The Star, 23 June 2017, available at: www.thestar.
com.my/news/nation/2017/06/23/claim-of-300000-stateless-indians-baseless-says-mic/; Rodziana Mohamed Razali,
“Addressing statelessness in Malaysia: New hope and remaining challenges”, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, 2017,
at p. 6, available at: https://files.institutesi.org/WP2017_09.pdf
51 Farhana Syed Nokman and Arnaz M Khairul, “MyDaftar initiative helped many obtain citizenship”, New Straits Times, 31
October 2017, available at: https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2017/10/297475/mydaftar-initiative-helped-many-obtaincitizenship
52 See “Pakatan says will resolve stateless Indians issue within 100 days of winning GE14”, The Malay Mail, 8 March 2018,
available at: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2018/03/08/pakatan-says-will-resolve-stateless-indians-issuewithin-100-days-of-winnin/1593857.
53 See “3,407 Indian Residents Will Get Malaysian Citizenship: Mahathir”, Benar News, 14 August 2018, available at:
https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/malaysian/citizenship-status-08142018160655.html and UNHCR, “UNHCR
welcomes move by Malaysia to grant citizenship to stateless persons”, available at: https://www.unhcr.org/en-my/news/
press/2018/8/5b73e54d4/unhcr-welcomes-move-by-malaysia-to-grant-citizenship-to-stateless-persons.html
40
U N H C R > G P P A C T I O N 1 : R E S O LV I N G E X I S T I N G M A J O R S I T U AT I O N S O F S TAT E L E S S N E S S