KUCHING, March 9 (Bernama) — The Home Ministry (KDN) will finalise all 946 applications for citizenship received from Sarawak by June, said its minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
He said the number was obtained through the Special Citizenship Committee established between the federal government and Sarawak, encompassing Article 15(A), Article 15(2), Article 16, Article 19 and Article 30 under the provisions of the Federal Constitution.
“Since this committee was formed in January, we have received 946 applications… this figure is not static and changes from time to time. Before this, we have approved 177 applications and this morning we finished finalising 146 applications on whether they were successful or not,” he said in a press conference after a ceremony to hand over the decision on citizenship here, today.
In the event, a total of 40 children were awarded Malaysian citizenship in accordance with Article 15(A) of the Federal Constitution which states that the federal government may, in any special circumstances it deems fit, cause any person under the age of 21 to be registered as citizen.
In the meantime, he said the close cooperation between KDN and the Sarawak Ministry of Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development, led by its minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah, has facilitated the process of examining applications in an effort to resolve the issue of children’s citizenship in the state.
Saifuddin Nasution said that among the challenges that both parties had to overcome included ensuring that the applicant took responsibility for sending complete documents, in addition to submitting valid documents such as marriage and child birth certificates.
“Due to the weakness and lack of knowledge of the application from the aspect of completing the documents, we established a special task force (PPK) in Sarawak numbering more than 30 officers to implement an ‘outreach’ programme to help complete the documentation process (applicants), especially those who live in rural areas, ” he said.
He added that KDN received a total of 55,000 citizenship applications from 2017 to date with the target of settling at least 10,000 applications this year.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency