Life is tough for ex-offenders. And it is worse for those who are also stateless.
Their plight has not been highlighted much but over the years, voluntary welfare organisations have been helping them with their challenges.
Among their biggest problems is the difficulty in buying or renting a Housing Board flat. This means that they may not be able to leave “toxic environments” even as they try to start anew.
Ain (not her real name), 47, who was in jail five times for drug offences, sleeps overnight at the building where she works as a cleaner if her brother turns violent.
“It will be a long time before I can move out,” she said.
Figures on the number of stateless ex-offenders are not available and VWOs helping former inmates said they do not often see such cases. But those who have said that stateless ex-offenders are a vulnerable group.
“If the ex-offenders have a home and good family support, it’s not so bad,” said Ms Ang Poh Wah, president of the Women in Recovery Association (Wira), which helps women recovering from drug abuse.
Those who do not have such support, as well as the privileges that citizens enjoy, may find themselves frustrated and alone, she added.
This is why groups like Wira help them in writing appeals for identification and travel documents.
The last available statistics on stateless individuals showed that as of end January, there were 1,411 in Singapore. As of August, 82 per cent of stateless individuals here have become permanent residents (PRs).
Stateless people in Singapore include PRs who have lost their foreign citizenship, kids born to foreign nationals who are not recognised in their home countries, and those born in pre-independence Singapore who have been unable to prove their country of birth.
Interviews with stateless ex-offenders here found that they face multiple roadblocks in rebuilding their lives.
Ain started taking heroin at age 16 after seeing her father and brother do so. Addiction strained their relationships.
When she needed her brother’s documents to apply for citizenship, as she had lost her birth certificate, he did not help.
Unlike Ain, who was given up as a baby, he grew up as a citizen.
“Slowly, I found a job and I’m trying my best to apply for citizenship,” said the mother of two, who has steered clear of drugs for nine years.
For Mr Keith Loh, 36, a driver, a sense of alienation in his youth led him to crime and drugs.
Born out of wedlock to a Singaporean father and PR mother, he is a stateless PR. While his grandmother took him many times to the immigration department as a child, they were “denied application”, he said.
“I expected that when I completed national service, I would get a pink IC,” he said, but it did not happen. Not long after, he got into bad company and was caught selling illegal VCDs.
Unable to retain a job, he went in and out of jail four times.
In his final stint, he took his O levels in Tanah Merah Prison School in 2013, determined to start over.
“There was resentment over my citizenship in the past, but I’ve got over it,” he said.
Two years after his release in 2014, he worries about his job prospects.
“Up till now, when I go for interviews, people ask, ‘Where are you from?’ Their impression is, ‘Are you Malaysian?'” said Mr Loh.
“But I have been living here all my life. I haven’t even been to Malaysia.”
He has since applied for a Certificate of Identity, which needs to be renewed after a year to travel abroad.
He also needs a visa to pass through other countries – a process he has to take time off from work to do.
“If I have to travel for a job on short notice, it will be quite difficult,” he said.
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This article was first published on December 19, 2016.
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