Kids born overseas to Malaysian mums can now apply for citizenship

 

Children born overseas to Malaysian mothers can now apply for citizenship.

This is after six Malaysian mothers today settled with the federal government a Federal Court appeal over citizenship for their children born overseas.

Counsel Gurdial Singh Nijar, who is acting for the mothers and co-appellant Family Frontiers, and the government’s senior federal counsel Liew Horng Bin confirmed the settlement.

The settlement comes with the terms that the mothers’ children born overseas retain their citizenship, which was obtained during the appeal period.

Another condition is that other Malaysian mothers in similar situations as the appellants could now apply to the Home Ministry for citizenship of their children born overseas under the age of 18.

The mothers and the rights group initially won citizenship for the children at the Kuala Lumpur High Court in 2021. However, the Court of Appeal reversed the lower court’s decision in 2022.

In October last year, Parliament passed a constitutional amendment to impart automatic citizenship for children born overseas to Malaysian mothers and foreign fathers.

However, as of today, it has yet to be gazetted into law.

[More to follow] - Mkini