Eelyn, 19, may look like every other teenage girl, carefree and enjoying university life. However, she shoulders a huge burden every day on her shoulders.

eelyn

To most of us, the small plastic card that we keep in our wallets is something we don’t even think twice about but Eelyn’s lack of an Identity Card (I.C.) has caused her to be stateless.


According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a stateless person is ‘a person who is not considered as a national by any State under the operation of its law’.

Eelyn is not alone because there are many others like her who suffer from a similar state. The UNHCR’s statistics further shows that there are at least 10,000 people in West Malaysia alone who are denied nationality, with unknown numbers in East Malaysia, who aren’t allowed education, jobs or healthcare. 

Recently, Nalvin Dhillon who was born to a Malaysian father and a Filipino mother only received his citizenship after a 13-year arduous court battle.

According to Eelyn, “Statelessness may not seem like a big issue to people, but it hurts the stateless person deeply in the long run.”

She was recognised as a Malaysian citizen up until the age of 12, before she was denied an I.C. Seven years on, she is still unable to obtain a citizenship.

Eelyn was born in a hospital in KL, but was abandoned by her biological parents whose identities are unknown. A kind-hearted couple adopted her and she was issued a birth certificate as a citizen of Malaysia.

However, life as she knew it changed when her father took her to apply for a MyKad at the age of 12. Her application was denied as her looks did not resemble her father.

After much hassle, her parents applied for adoption through a court order, and she was issued a new birth certificate only to find out that her citizenship was revoked.

Her parents then applied for her citizenship to the Kementerian Dalam Negeri in 2016 and they have been waiting for the approval since then.

Eelyn faces problems every day due to her stateless status: some big and while other small ones may not seem like a big deal to others, it affects her life in small ways.

She was able to enrol into a secondary school but had to buy her own books as she was unable to obtain those provided for free by the government like other students, which proved to be costly.

She was also constantly inundated with questions trying to get her COVID-19 vaccine, as she could only use her student ID as identification.

Not only that, she is unable to open her own bank account or obtain a driving license, she could only watch on feeling left out as her friends achieved new milestones.

Her family saw it as a miracle when they were able to enrol her at Sunway College as they were not sure if she would be able to receive a tertiary education.

This problem is constantly on the minds of Eelyn and her parents, who check on the status of her citizenship application every day. On top of it all, her dad is undergoing treatment for cancer.

She worries what would happen to her if both her parents were to pass on, as there won’t be anyone around to prove her existence.

She shares her story in hopes that someone can help her, “To anyone who is able to help, please hear our cries. My story is just one out of hundreds and thousands of many other stateless children and the struggles we face.

“Despite all that I’ve been through, I am considered incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunities I've had and to live the life I've lived. And to the many people out there who are still fighting to belong, hope is still alive.”

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