Home ministry to expedite Federal Constitution amendment on citizenship

Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the Federal Constitution amendment on citizenship was a priority for his ministry. (Bernama pic)

PUTRAJAYA: The home ministry will expedite the Federal Constitution amendment on citizenship, says minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

He said the matter was a priority for the ministry, adding that to date, the amendment had gone through the discussion stage at the Cabinet level and had been presented to the Conference of Rulers.

“Now the wordings used in the bill are being fine-tuned,” he said during the winding-up session of the PKR annual national congress at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre here.

The home ministry was reported to have made a decision on whether the Federal Constitution would be amended or it would only involve existing Acts and regulations.

On the parole system, mandatory attendance orders and licensed release for inmates, he said the programmes not only reduced congestion in prisons but had shown positive results, with only one out of 800 inmates involved landing back in prison.

“Technically, they are prison inmates but are outside (of the prison). (Under these programmes), we look for almost 200 companies, including Panasonic and SWCorp for them to work at. We will start more programmes like these,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said another settlement for children of undocumented migrants would be opened in Papar, Sabah, next month.

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