Sea gypsy kids causing a nuisance in Sabah capital

KOTA KINABALU: A bunch of stateless sea gypsy children are posing a headache for authorities as they openly indulge in begging around the city centre here.

Numbering about 30, the children have been rounded up before and reprimanded but to no avail as some of their parents are also involved in the activity with authorities having little power to act.

Also known as the Pelahu, they are from a group of sea nomads who have been plying the Sulu Sea between Sabah and southern Philippines.

Some hold Malaysian identification documents, while others only have letters to state that they belong to the Pelahu community.

Commenting on recent photographs and video of the children having a dip in a public fountain at the city’s popular Gaya Street, Kota Kinabalu City Mayor Datuk Nordin Siman said the children had been rounded up many times over the past and were advised to stop.

“Their parents were also called in and told to watch their children’s activities but they returned to begging after a while, ” he said.

As the Pelahu were considered stateless, the state Welfare Department cannot provide any assistance, nor can the Immigration Department deport them.

“We are in a dilemma as to how to handle them.

“They are not involved in crimes or any criminal intimidation. The problem is more of being a nuisance and that gives our city a bad image.

“We are having a problem keeping them from misbehaving on our streets, ” he said, adding that the authorities already recorded the details of the children.

“There could be more of them, ” he said, explaining that there were at least 23 adults from among the Pelahu group that was also involved in begging.

Nordin said operations to round up the children were done regularly together with the police, welfare and immigration, but the “catch-and-release” cycle was not solving the problem.

He said the sea gypsy population had been slowly growing around the city since 2003, where state authorities acted against a two families living under a bridge in Sembulan here by sending back to the state’s east coast.

“We believe they are from the same families, and their numbers have grown over time, ” he said, adding that most of them now lived in stilt houses at the Sembulan water village near town or Kg Pondo in Pulau Gaya off the city.

Nordin said based on a 2019 census, the city identified 399 adult Pelahu and 740 children in the city.

In the latest viral video of the children jumping into the fountain, he said they were there for three minutes, and fled when city enforcement officials arrived.