Sabah Residents With Problem Of Undocumented Children Need To Apply For Citizenship According To The Law

TAWAU, Nov 20 (Bernama) -- The Home Ministry has advised Sabah residents facing the problem of children without documentation due to irregular marriages of their parents to come forward to apply for their children's citizenship under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution.

Its Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said his ministry is ready to assist but applications from the parties involved would be scrutinised including data collection.

"The applications will later be managed by a joint committee (Special Committee on Citizenship Status by the Sabah government and the Home Ministry). This year, two meetings of the committee were held at my level and (Chief Minister) Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor and we have approved a number of applications submitted in accordance with the law.

"Although this is a small start, we believe we are moving towards the right direction. "Marriage must be registered according to the law, otherwise, children born would be victims," ​​he told reporters after the Merotai Community Leadership Gathering today.

Saifuddin said the government had done the right thing in terms of regulations and laws that were sufficient in terms of governance, namely the establishment of a joint committee between the state government and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Earlier in his speech, Saifuddin said the application needed to be registered with the Chief Minister's Department and the applications also needed to be accompanied by confirmation, including from the village headman at the location where they were married.

"We are reorganising, including re-registering the marriage with the Islamic Religious Department even though the marriage took place a long time ago. According to the law, the application will be reviewed before being approved for the issuance of identity documents.

"We should not punish children, because these children have difficulty going to school, when they are sick, they have to pay much more at the hospital due to the lack of identification documents. It is our responsibility to solve this problem," he said.

Saifuddin said the problem could be easily solved if the state and federal governments worked as a team.

Voting day for the 17th Sabah polls is set for Nov 29 while early voting is on Nov 25.

According to statistics from the Election Commission (EC), a total of 1,784,843 voters are eligible to exercise their responsibilities in this election, consisting of 1,760,417 ordinary voters, 11,697 military personnel and their spouses and 12,729 police personnel and their spouses.

For the latest news on the 17th Sabah PRN, please visit https://prn.bernama.com/sabah/index.php.

-- BERNAMA