Nearly 14,000 citizenship applications approved so far this year, says Saifuddin

GUA MUSANG: The Home Ministry has approved nearly 14,000 citizenship applications to date, says Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

The Home Minister said that, based on data collected since 2013, 75% of these approvals fall under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution, which involves illegitimate children, adopted children, and foster children.

“The remaining cases fall under Article 15(2) of the Federal Constitution, such as those advocated by Family Frontiers (Malaysia). This includes Malaysian women’s children born abroad because their husbands are foreigners.

“This is temporary while we work on amending the constitution to allow these children to acquire citizenship automatically or through legal enforcement.

“In the second case, foreign wives married to local husbands can also apply for citizenship after seven years. They marry here, live here, and raise their families here. Therefore, they apply for citizenship, and this is another category that receives approval,” he said.

He told this to reporters after attending a goodwill programme here Thursday.

During the July 1 sitting of the Dewan Rakyat, Saifuddin Nasution was reported as saying that his ministry targets to resolve 17,000 citizenship applications this year.

Meanwhile, he said that his ministry has requested the police and the Malaysian Prisons Department to collaborate in addressing the issue of drone use for drug trafficking into prisons.

“I have asked both agencies to work together to curb this issue, as it is very detrimental. Not only is it an offence under the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952, involving drug trafficking, but it also targets prisons, which are institutions for rehabilitation, making it very inappropriate,” he said.

On Monday (Aug 12), the media reported that the Narcotics Crime Investigation Department (NCID) of Bukit Aman detected seven cases of attempts to smuggle drugs into prisons nationwide using drones so far this year.

Bukit Aman NCID director Datuk Khaw Kok Chin was reported as saying there were two cases each in Kedah and Melaka, and one each in Perak, Kelantan, and Sarawak. – Bernama