PUTRAJAYA, Nov 26 — The Home Ministry (KDN) will expedite the Federal Constitution amendment on citizenship, its Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said.

He added that it was his ministry’s priority and at this time the amendment had passed the discussion session at the Cabinet level and has been presented to the Conference of Malay Rulers.

"Now the wording and language used in the bill are being fine-tuned,” he said during the winding up session of the 2023 PKR Annual National Congress at Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) here today.

The KDN was reported to have finalised whether the amendment on citizenship would be made to the Federal Constitution or would only involve existing Acts and regulations.

On the parole system, mandatory attendance orders and licensed release for inmates, he said that besides reducing congestion in prisons, the programmes also had a positive result when only one out of 800 inmates involved landed back in prison.

"Technically, they are prison inmates but are outside physically. (Under this programmes), we look for almost 200 companies, including Panasonic, SWCorp for them to work at. We will start more programmes like these to show our concern for inmates,” he said.

In other developments, he said another settlement for children of illegal immigrants will be opened in Papar, Sabah next month based on the Madani government’s care towards children abandoned by their parents during Immigration Department operations.

Saifuddin Nasution was reported to have said on Nov 1 that a part of the 1,000 foreign children housed at 19 immigration depots throughout the country have been transferred to a temporary centre called Baitul Mahabbah in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.

The transfer was on humanitarian grounds, in line with the government’s commitment in protecting the rights of children no matter their status as stated in the Child Act 2001 and the Convention on Rights of the Child (CRC). — Bernama