Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who co-chairs the task force with Sarawak premier Abang Johari Openg, said decisions had been made for 12,509 applications.

“The remaining 715 cases are still being processed and need to be resolved,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Saifuddin was responding to Ali Biju (PN-Saratok) who asked the home ministry for updates on the issuance of documents to stateless people in Sarawak’s interior.

The home minister said under the Menyemai Kasih Rakyat initiative, officers from the national registration department (JPN) travel to the nation’s rural areas to identify and help stateless people obtain documentation.

“(JPN) officers don’t wait at their offices. Instead, they go to the longhouses and look for those with no identification documents,” he said.