DAP wants citizenship for 150,000 stateless children

MP for Kulai says it is unfair that the Home Ministry refuses citizenship to children because fathers did not register their marriages to foreigners.

KUALA LUMPUR: The DAP has urged the Home Ministry to review its stand on refusing citizenship to children whose fathers failed to register their marriages to foreign women.

In a media statement today, the MP for Kulai, Teo Nie Ching said, “Children should not be made victims due to their parents’ carelessness and mistakes.”

Citing statistics by non-governmental organisation, Voice of the Children, Teo said there were approximately 150,000 stateless children in Malaysia, who were denied access to education and employment simply because they were not citizens.

“In Malaysia, stateless children are denied (the) basic right to education and healthcare,” she pointed out, adding that only a handful went to primary school and most did not complete their secondary education, leaving them with practically no chance to even consider a university education.

“Without proper education, these children will have great difficulties to excel in life and they will also have a problem to get a good job. Worse still, some of them might be involved in illegal activities,” Teo said.

She also cited the Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution that stated: “every person born within the Federation of whose parents one at least is at the time of the birth either a citizen or permanent resident in the Federation are citizens by operation of law” and added that this proved that the registration of a couple’s marriage was not a pre-requisite for their children to be declared citizens.

Reiterating DAP’s stand to support the move to grant citizenship to stateless children, Teo stated her hopes that Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar would keep his word that his ministry would review the policy if there was consensus among all parties.