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Even Malaysians born in the country can face statelessness due to issues such as unregistered births and documentation gaps. This highlights just how valuable citizenship is, no matter where it is held. As the saying goes, you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.
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Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng shared a touching message he received from a girl whom he helped gain her Malaysian citizenship.
In the heartfelt letter addressed to Lim, the girl named Chok, who has lupus, thanked him for helping her solve her statelessness a few years ago.
Chok happily shared that she received her Malaysian citizenship in December 2025.
Now at 18 years old, I am truly a Malaysia(n) with a future in Malaysia.
Chok wrote in a letter to Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng
Chok and her father are grateful for Lim’s great kindness, help, and support in fighting for her.
The problems faced by those who are stateless
It’s easy to imagine statelessness as a kind of freedom because you think it’s just living off the grid with no ties. In reality, it’s far harsher: children are shut out of classrooms, mothers struggle to access healthcare, and many are confined to low-paying, unstable work. Stateless individuals don’t have the freedom to travel out of the country either and lack comprehensive protection under the law.
A citizenship document is the key that unlocks many of the rights and privileges most of us have enjoyed since birth.
The right to citizenship is a fundamental human right that’s enshrined in Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Despite having the laws in place, many people around the world are denied this basic right. It’s estimated that a stateless child is born every 10 minutes.
In Malaysia, it’s estimated that 100,000 to 300,000 people, including indigenous and migrant communities, are stateless.
Statelessness is essentially a humanitarian crisis, not simply a legal oversight. Hence, there have been calls to manage and mitigate the process of gaining Malaysian citizenship for stateless individuals here.
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