Speed up citizenship applications for stateless kids, govt told

Free Malaysia Today

A Malaysian mother opens up about her concerns over the struggles her overseas-born children will face upon their return to Malaysia.    Read More:  https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2024/01/09/govt-urged-to-speed-up-citizenship-applications-for-stateless-kids/  Free Malaysia Today is an independent, bi-lingual news portal with a focus on Malaysian current affairs.    Subscribe to our channel - http://bit.ly/2Qo08ry   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check us out at https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com Follow FMT on Facebook: http://bit.ly/2Rn6xEV Follow FMT on Dailymotion: https://bit.ly/2WGITHM Follow FMT on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2OCwH8a  Follow FMT on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2OKJbc6 Follow FMT on TikTok : https://bit.ly/3cpbWKK Follow FMT Telegram - https://bit.ly/2VUfOrv Follow FMT LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/3B1e8lN Follow FMT Lifestyle on Instagram: https://bit.ly/39dBDbe ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Download FMT News App: Google Play – http://bit.ly/2YSuV46 App Store – https://apple.co/2HNH7gZ Huawei AppGallery - https://bit.ly/2D2OpNP  #FMTNews #TeeLiLi #Citizenship #Government

Transcript

00:00 Tee Lili and her only child, Wendy, wish to return home.

00:04 For six years, they have been stuck in Italy,

00:06 hoping each day that Wendy's Malaysian citizenship application will be approved.

00:11 So we did the Malaysian citizenship application,

00:15 but it was left pending with no update.

00:19 In the end, my kid took the father's citizenship.

00:24 Despite submitting my kid's application for Malaysian citizenship

00:29 under this Article 15.2, soon after she was born,

00:34 it has not been approved to date.

00:36 Wendy, who was born overseas in 2017 to Tee and a foreign national

00:42 who is not an Italian citizen,

00:44 was not eligible for Malaysian citizenship at birth.

00:47 The federal constitution stipulates that citizenship

00:50 can only be inherited from Malaysian fathers.

00:53 The situation became even more complex when Tee split with her partner.

00:58 But the father is going to renounce his citizenship in February 2024.

01:04 According to that country's law, when he did the renounce,

01:08 the kid's citizenship will be taken automatically as well.

01:13 But when the father has new citizenship in February next year,

01:19 he cannot pass the citizenship to my daughter because I have the full custody.

01:23 This would leave Wendy stateless.

01:27 Now on the home front,

01:28 there have been some developments where citizenship is concerned.

01:31 In 2021, the High Court ruled that Malaysian mothers have equal rights

01:36 to pass on citizenship to their overseas-born children.

01:39 The case is now pending in federal court.

01:42 In February, the cabinet agreed to amend the federal constitution

01:46 to enable automatic Malaysian citizenship

01:48 to children born overseas to Malaysian mothers,

01:51 but to date, the legislation remains unchanged.

01:54 For Tee and Wendy, it's now a race against time.

01:57 Tee is hopeful the government will act faster,

02:00 especially for critical cases like Wendy's.

02:03 She also hopes the Home Ministry will expedite the processing

02:07 of the applications she submitted years ago.

02:10 Family Frontiers Programme Coordinator, Sara Zarina Mashanis,

02:14 says critical cases need to be resolved fast.

02:17 Family Frontiers is urging specifically for KDN

02:22 is to pay more attention towards critical cases,

02:25 such as single mothers, mothers in marital violence,

02:28 mothers who have terminal illnesses,

02:30 and also applications that were made in 2016-2017,

02:34 as those have not even been processed yet.

02:37 Without citizenship, children and their parents

02:40 will have limited access to affordable healthcare and education.

02:43 I think it is also important to note here that these children

02:46 are forced to take on another nationality

02:49 as they have no access to their mother's Malaysian citizenship.

02:52 This argument of them having another nationality

02:56 is then used against them when applying for Malaysian citizenship.

02:59 Regardless of these hurdles, she says many Malaysian mothers

03:03 will not give up trying to obtain citizenship for their children.

03:06 They have family here, and they want their children to grow up

03:10 with Malaysian values, experience Malaysian culture,

03:13 you know, the food, traditions, festivities,

03:15 surrounded by people they know and love,

03:17 and to know the culture that their mothers grew up in.

03:20 Natasha Abused, FMT News.

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