World Street Children News

Street kids facing bleak future… unless they can bend it like Beckham

24 Jun 2006
JASWINDER KAUR

The fate of the street children of Filipino origin in Sabah, who have no documents, is rather bleak.

TEASING one another on who is the better footballer, three boys nibble on their straws, sipping iced Milo at a coffee shop in a busy part of Kota Kinabalu.

When one boy boasted that he is the best in his group of footie junkies, his friends declared that he has a gift for talking big, and not for passing the ball.

The boys continue with their animated banter for a good five minutes and then do what they had set out to do that morning — polish shoes for 50 sen a pair.

"I would do anything to go back to school. My favourite subject is Science. I want to be a doctor," Bulalun Abdullah, a 14-year-old David Beckham-wannabe says while polishing a leather shoe.

Bulalun would rather trade his faded oversized blue shorts, grubby gray T-shirt and slippers as thin as leaves for a school uniform and white shoes.

He studied until Year Six at Sekolah Kebangsaan Sembulan.

"I thought I could go to Form One but was turned down by a few schools. In the end, I gave up and now I shine shoes," Bulalun says.

"I have a Malaysian birth certificate but can’t apply for a MyKad. My only other document is a passport which I share with my mother."

He dreams of becoming a doctor but Bulalun knows that he will end up as a labourer.

Another street child, as they are commonly known as, speaks fondly of his days at school in Kota Marudu, a town in northern Sabah.

Rio Jais, 12, studied until Year Three before being forced to drop out. He is trying to get his father, who he claims is a native Kadazan, to enrol him in school so that he can become a fireman.

"I was asked to leave school when I wanted to enter Year Four because I didn’t have proper documents," Rio says after some coaxing.

"My mother is from the Philippines, my father a local, but they are divorced. I know where my father works but it’s not easy to meet him."

Yazid Manel, 14, also went to school until Year Five before hitting the streets to earn a living.

He recently spent eight days in a temporary detention centre for illegals.

"It was scary. We are just children but we were made to stay with adults. My greatest fear is being sent to the Philippines. I don’t know anyone there," Yazid says.

"I want to stay in Sabah with my family and friends, even if I have to polish shoes forever."

The boys are among thousands of children born to Filipino migrants who, for decades, have been crossing rough seas to seek a better life in Sabah.

Many have Malaysian birth certificates but can’t apply for MyKad as their parents are from the Philippines. Others don’t even have any documents.

These children have no choice but to roam the streets in search of money. While some try to earn a decent living, others pester tourists and locals for money. Some even charge motorists a ‘protection fee’ for guarding their cars.

There are about 57,000 Filipinos in Sabah holding a temporary visit pass called IMM13 issued to refugees.

According to a source at the Sabah Education Department, the directive from the federal Education Ministry is to only allow a child of an embassy staff, a child of a professional non-citizen or a child whose parent is a permanent resident, to enrol in school.

For these children, the annual fee is RM120 (primary school) or RM240 (secondary).

According to the source, in the past, children of Filipino refugees were allowed to attend school but now they are barred.

It is learnt some schools do allow migrant children into their gates out of sympathy but for the majority, it is the streets which provide them with an education.

Philippine embassy consul general Antonio Morales says the issue of educating children is complicated.

Morales says although Malaysia is a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), providing education for children of refugees or those without documents is something that the country has to look into.

"The priority is to give education to local children. It is a complicated issue," he says.

Morales estimates there are several thousand children of Filipino migrants in Sabah and a few hundred are currently being housed in three temporary detention centres for illegals.

"One major problem is that these children are not documented when they are born in villages. It is not their fault their births were not registered. We are asking the Malaysian authorities to find a way to register their births, but we understand that it is difficult."

Nothing seems to have improved as the number of children on the streets, many of whom had been abandoned without intention by their parents who were deported home, continue to rise.

For now, Bulalun, Rio and Yazid continue to bicker about football greats and dream of becoming the next Beckham after a hard day of polishing shoes. They will stick together until forced into separation by the law.