Better not to marry illegals
Published on: Sunday, July 03, 2016
SEPANGGAR: Locals should not marry illegal immigrants for the simple reason that that such unions would complicate the lives of their children later.In giving the advice, State Community Development and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Jainab Ahmad said if they were to marry illegal immigrants, their children would be affected in terms of obtaining identity documents and other benefits provided by the Government."I encourage single women and men to marry locals through lawful marriage procedures and steer clear of illegal immigrants because the future of your children is in your hands.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I was made to understand that if a child's mother is a citizen, the child will be a citizen but if the mother is a non-citizen, the child is also a non-citizen."That is why I really hope locals will not choose illegal immigrants as their husbands or wives because incidence of children without documents is quite serious in Sabah and we need to tackle this problem," she said.Jainab was speaking at the press conference during the handing over of vouchers to 108 recipients at the Giant hypermarket at Indah Permai, here, Saturday. She added that the issue of no document does not only arise because of marriages between illegals and locals but also because some married couples do not go through legal marriage procedures.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Some couples opt to kahwin kampung (common law marriages) and thus do not have marriage certificates as they do not register their marriage and that causes trouble for their children to get birth certificates which is very important."Without documents, the children cannot go to school...cannot obtain assistance from the Welfare Department," she said, referring to the fate of eight siblings recently who do not have documents but whose mother is a citizen and has a MyKad.
ADVERTISEMENT
Jainab said she had already referred the case of the eight siblings aged between two and 21 to the Welfare Department and would discuss with the department what they could do to help them.According to Jainab, the mother of the siblings, is undergoing cancer treatment in Likas hospital and their father had abandoned them.She said the eldest of the eight is now at a drug rehabilitation centre as he was involved in drug activities.The siblings were among the recipients who received the shopping vouchers for Hari Raya. In another development, Jainab said she had discussed with her officers and prepared the necessary paperwork to tackle the issue of children without documents.She has proposed that stateless children be given training in any field provided by the Government so that they have skills to build careers.Jainab added that this proposal at the same time will also help tackle social problems.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
