parents at their touch-point outreach programme held at SMK Telang Usan on Thursday.
MARUDI: More than 1,000 people in Northern Region including Miri and Baram have received assistance and advice from Miri National Registration Department (NRD) Special Mobile Unit since its establishment in 2009. Head of NRD Miri Special Mobile Unit (UKB) Affrizan Bujang said a total of 19 operations had been conducted this year by the UKB in the Northern Region while in 2016, they conducted a total of 17 operations.
“From the overall total the Penan ethnic group forms the biggest number without identification document,” he said when met by the New Sarawak Tribune during their touch-point outreach programme held at SMK Telang Usan, here, Thursday evening. He disclosed further, Penans are the ones facing problems in identification document among the community.
Meanwhile, he said, the department received four applications from SMK Telang Usan students for not having birth certificate and MyKad (IC). “The problem is the same with SMK Marudi students.Some of them were born of mixed marriages including locals being married to foreigners. For example, those locals married to Indonesians do not have marriage certificate leading to problem of citizenship identification.
“In cases like these, they have birth certificates but their citizenship is not stated in the certificates. So when it comes to MyKad application we cannot process it unless they can prove their status with valid needed document,” he said. However, Affrizan said, the department will try its best to assist those students in getting their identification documents. “What we need is valid documentation to support the application,” he said.
