Fatimah (second left), flanked by her assistant ministers Sharifah
Hasidah (left) and Dr Abdul Rahman Ismail and others at the press
conference.
A roundtable meeting chaired by Minister of Women, Women and Community Wellbeing Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said the special task force was slated to run from September this year until Sept 2018.
The task force would comprise representatives of Education Department, Health Department, Immigration Department, Lawyers Office, Chief Minister’s Office, Islamic Religious Department Sarawak, Sarawak Native Customs Council, police, Welfare Department and grassroots leaders.
“Based on our log numbers, we have set a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for the task force to attend and settle a total of 560 cases,” Fatimah told a press conference after a meeting here yesterday.
She added that the task force would only attend to genuine cases under the ‘Application For Citizenship’ under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution.
The verification process and procedures undertaken to ensure that a child was a genuine Malaysian citizen, she added, would take time as it would be carried out on a case-to-case basis.
Once a child’s citizenship has been properly verified, the supporting documents for the child’s application would be forwarded to the National Registration Department which would then forward it to the Ministry of Home Affairs for approval.
“To avoid any issues of granting Malaysian citizenship to a child, it is imperative that a couple’s marriage is registered with the National Registration Department even though the marriage is carried out through customary rights (adat istiadat),” she added.
Fatimah also said if the mother of a child was a foreigner and the father a Malaysian citizen, the child would take the citizenship of his/her mother. If the child is born out of wedlock and the mother a foreigner, the child would assume the citizenship of his/her mother.
“That is why registering a marriage with the NRD is important especially for those marrying foreigners. When a child’s citizenship is in question the implications is that he or she will have difficulty in getting proper education, health and welfare assistance.”
Fatimah also urged the Ministry of Home Affairs to provide special consideration to warrant citizenship to abandoned children.
The ministry, she added, had launched a special committee for children to obtain their birth certificate from January this year until Dec 2017.
“So far the committee has conducted 33 operations in 22 state constituencies in Sarawak and solved 1,008 cases. I hope the committee will consider extending the duration after 2017 as Sarawak is vast and has a scattered population,” she added.
August 24, 2016, Wednesday, borneo post
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