No stateless people, says Zahid
Published on: Monday, April 20, 2015
Kuala Lumpur: Based on the definition of "stateless" that refers to a person who has no nationality or citizenship in any country in the world, there is no stateless people in Malaysia because they are not allowed to enter this country without legal travel documents, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.Zahid said this in response to Senator Datuk Chin Su Phin's question on the number of stateless children in Sabah and actions taken by the Government to overcome this problem, at the Dewan Negara sitting here. He said the citizenship of children born in Malaysia depends on their parents' citizenship and marital status, which under the country's Constitution, could be classified as citizen, non-citizen or undetermined.
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Citizenship is given to children whose mother or father is a citizen or permanent resident of Malaysia whereas children who are born to non-Malaysian citizens will not be granted citizenship. Meanwhile, parents whose citizenship are yet to be determined will result in a similar outcome for their children. Zahid said the main factor in determining the citizenship of children is the marital registration of their parents. If the marriage is registered legally, their children's citizenship will follow that of their parents, provided one of them is a Malaysian citizen, he said.
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For an unregistered marriage, Zahid said the children's citizenship will be based on the mother's citizenship as provided for under Section 17, Part III, Second Schedule of the Federal Constitution. "As such, parents' marital registration is crucial because it will determine the citizenship status of their children in the future."
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On the number of stateless children, Zahid said the National Registration Department (NRD) only kept records on birth and death, marriage and divorce for non-Muslims and issuance of identification cards. He said the NRD did not keep records on individuals claiming to be stateless. Zahid went on to say that non-citizenship status printed on the birth certificates of children did not imply statelessness. He explained that the non-citizenship status was given because records showed that the mother and father were foreigners. "For these cases, the parents have to handle the travel and identification documents of their children at the embassies of their countries of origin."Zahid said the issuance of birth certificates to foreign children born in this country did not mean granting them automatic citizenship because their citizenship came under the purview of Part III of the Federal Constitution. He said the birth certificates issued to foreign children only served as a record that their birth took place in Malaysia. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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