KUCHING, March 16 — The Home Ministry has approved 198 citizenship applications for children under the age of 18 from Sarawak and Sabah.
Its Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said the statistics were based on the National Registration Department’s records between 2017 and February 15, 2022, according to Sarawak Public Communications Unit (Ukas) today.
“During the period, a total of 9,259 citizenship applications were received for children under the age of 18 from Sarawak and Sabah,” said Hamzah when responding to a query from Kota Samarahan MP Datuk Rubiah Wang at the Parliament sitting on Monday.
Rubiah was concerned about the current status of citizenship applications and approvals, particularly for individuals who have not been determined to be Sarawak or Sabah residents.
On January 18 this year, Minister of Women, Children and Community Wellbeing Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah was reported to have urged the Home Ministry to expedite the approval process for citizenship application under Section 15A of the Federal Constitution of stateless children in Sarawak.
She said a special committee was set up on August 15, 2016 to facilitate the citizenship applications for stateless children in the state.
“It must be understood that the special committee has no jurisdiction to approve the applications but to only facilitate the process in ensuring all the required documents are in order,” said Fatimah, who sits on the committee.
She added that stateless children whose application for citizenship had taken too long to be processed would face unnecessary difficulties in obtaining education, health services and even employment.
An April 22, 2021 report quoted Fatimah as saying that the application for citizenship status under Section 15A is only applicable for children who are genuinely stateless without any nationality.
“If a minor has a passport of another nation such as Indonesia or the Philippines, it means he already has a nationality and the application for citizenship will not be able to proceed under Section 15A,” she said.
Such applications would be rejected because the Federal Constitution does not allow any citizen to hold dual citizenship, she said.
Other reasons why a child is stateless is because the parents’ marriage was not properly registered, or due to failure to produce documents from the courts or welfare department proving a child is legally under the guardianship of an individual, she explained.
To make sure all the required documents are in place, there will be a checklist to ensure the documents are in order, while the applicants will be asked to provide whatever documents that are missing, she said.
Fatimah said the rationale behind this was to ensure all applications reaching the committee would have the required documents for their citizenship status to be considered promptly.
As of 2019, the Sarawak Special Committee on Citizenship under Article 15A received 723 applications. — Borneo Post Online
