Rep wants automatic citizenship for adopted stateless kids
KUCHING: The Home Ministry has been called on to allow for automatic citizenship to be granted to stateless children who have been adopted by Malaysians.
Bukit Assek assemblywoman Irene Mary Chang pointed out that Malaysia signed the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1995.
“The Convention requires that every child born should have a right to a name and to acquire a nationality.
“If the government is to uphold the convention, it should consider the automatic granting of citizenship through successful adoption as the best interest and welfare of the child should be of the primary consideration in all these citizenship applications,” she said in a statement in response to Deputy Home Minister Datuk Masir Kujat’s recent statement that it is inappropriate to call anyone ‘stateless’ because the determination of a child’s nationality is based on his or her parents’ nationalities.
“These children, who have no personal documentation or documentations which state their nationality as ‘ tidak ditentukan’ (not determined) or ‘bukan warganegara’ (non- citizens) fall squarely into the definition of ‘ stateless’ by the UN ( United Nations) refugee agency as one who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law. In layman’s terms, it means that such person is not recognised as a citizen of any country,” she said.
“So although it is indeed distasteful to refer to these children as ‘Stateless’, but relying on the UNHCR ( United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) definition, they are indeed stateless. A spade should be called a spade, no matter how distasteful.
“And unless the government takes immediate and prompt action to eradicate this issue in our society, there will be more to be added into the list of stateless children of 290,437, which was reported to be the written reply in Parliament in November 2016 by both the Deputy Home Minister and Home Minister.
“This number in fact has exceeded the total population of Perlis of 250,000 people.”
Chang called on Masir to push for changes in the guidelines and award citizenship to these children.
“I also suggest to Datuk Masir, that instead of being concerned about how these children ought to be labelled, he and his ministry should do everything to ensure that these numbers of children who fall into this category be urgently reduced,” she said.
The current practice by the Home Ministry and National Registration Department is to grant citizenship to adopted children who have biological parents who are a married Malaysian couple, or an unwed Malaysian biological mother.