Citizenship applications for stateless individuals in Sarawak will be improved soon, said Sarawak’s Women, Childhood, and Community Wellbeing Development Minister Fatimah Abdullah.
Fatimah said district offices (DOs), which receive applications from stateless individuals, will enhance their procedures to increase the success rates of applications.
"The receiving point (of application) will be at the DOs, so we need to explain to them (DOs) the procedures, that upon receiving (an application), they must go through the checklist.
"The form must be complete so that we don't need to return (an incomplete) form. Everything must be done right at the point of application, which is at the DO.
"We calculated and double-checked the procedure right from the DO up to the SS (State Secretary) office who will issue the document, will take about 37 days because we want to make sure the process doesn't take long," said Fatimah (above), according to Borneo Post.
For now, the Sarawak government will open applications once all district offices are properly briefed about the new process.
By allowing applications at district offices, she said applicants will no longer need to submit citizenship applications to her ministry before they are sent to Putrajaya for further processing.
Rural communities in Sarawak have long faced problems registering births which can complicate school registrations and other matters.
According to Fatimah, there were 1,044 citizenship applications from Sarawak between 2016 and March this year but only 267 were approved. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.