Years-long wait for identity

No way back: Rathna with her husband and children at their home in Melbourne.

SEREMBAN: Five years ago, Rathna Devy Muttaya left her young family behind to further her studies in Australia, hoping that the extra knowledge would help her expand her two food businesses.

But problems with registering her daughter’s birth with the Malaysian authorities has scuttled these plans and turned the family’s life upside down.