LFL pans Home Ministry over stateless children stand
PUCHONG: Legal rights NGO Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) panned Home Ministry over its stand on stateless children.
“By virtue of the 2nd schedule part 2 section 1(a) of the constitution, as long as one of the parents of the child is Malaysian, the child is automatically a Malaysian citizen,” said LFL advisor N Surendran.
“The situation remains the same even where the mother is a non-citizen, because the child has fulfilled the requirement under section 1(a) that at least one parent is a citizen.
“In short, irrespective of the mother being a non-citizen and the marriage being unregistered, the child is automatically entitled to Malaysian citizenship as long as the father is a citizen,” said Surendran.
Yesterday Deputy Home Minister Azis Jamman told the Dewan Rakyat that citizenship is contingent on the marital status of a person’s parents, along with their citizenship.
He also said that citizenship application also can be made under Article 15A if the parents register their marriages after their children is born.
Surendran also criticised Article 15A as “of no use” to stateless children because the article grants absolute discretion of the home minister in granting citizenship.
He also added that application under Article 15A take several years to process and often result in repeated rejection while the stateless children remains in limbo.
“The Pakatan Harapan government’s answer in parliament yesterday that the children can apply under Article 15A was the standard response goven by the old BN regime.
“It is a transparent delaying tactic to deny citizenship to desperate stateless children,” he said.
