Follow up on children’s citizenship status with JPN — Fatimah

KUCHING: Parents who applied for citizenship for their children under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution before the Special Committee’s first meeting in November 2016, but have yet to be notified of the outcome of the applications are advised to immediately inform the state National Registration Department (JPN).

Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah said this would enable the state JPN to gather all the applications and forward them to the Home Ministry through the Special Committee she heads.

Given that Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also Home Minister, had assured that the status of all applications would be known by Dec 1, she said parents should grab this opportunity to get their children documented as citizens of the country.

“The DPM had rec ent ly announced that the status of all applications that were submitted to the Home Ministry will be made known by Dec 1. However, it is only for those who made their applications through the JPN and the Special Committee since November last year,” she told a press conference after chairing the state Social Development Counci l ( SDC) meeting here yesterday.

She said the Special Committee would not know the status of the applications that were made directly to the Home Ministry before November 2016 as they did not go through JPN and the Special Committee.

“Go to JPN so that we can gather all these applications and forward them to the Home Ministry so that these cases too will be given due consideration as soon as possible,” she said.

Fat imah said the Special Committee has had 12 meetings since it was formed in September last year.

She said during the meetings, applications made through JPN were veri fied by the Special Committee before being forwarded to the Home Ministry.

Since the first meeting in November last year, the committee has submitted 224 applications for children’s citizenship under Article 15A.

“If the status is to be known by Dec 1, this means that it takes less than a year for the applicants who went through the special committee to know the status of their applications.

“We are all very grateful to the DPM, otherwise the applications normally take three years to know the outcome,” she said.

Fatimah said the Special Committee’s next meeting would be later this month and hoped there would be more applications to be verified and forwarded before Dec 1.

“The problem that normally arises with the stateless children is that they are bound to lose in terms of benefits from the various types of aid from the government for poor students such as textbooks, uniforms, food aid and monetary assistance under the Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pelajar Miskin.

“Sometimes, they can’t even gain entry into any government school, which is a pity,” she said.

Successful applicants will be issued with citizenship certificates.