Home Ministry: DNA tests not enough for citizenship

THE use of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test results cannot be used as conclusive evidence to grant Malaysian citizenship, says Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

The Home Minister said the results of a DNA test could only be used as supporting evidence to confirm blood relationships between an individual and other family members, particularly between children, their mother or father, or siblings.

“This is because every applicant (for citizenship) still needs to comply with all other relevant laws, especially those related to marriage registration,” he said in reply to a question from Vivian Wong (PH-Sandakan).

Wong had asked whether the Home Ministry would consider the results of DNA testing as one of the conclusive or official ways to address issues related to late registration of identity cards and citizenship applications.

Saifuddin said an individual’s citizenship was determined by the marriage status of one’s biological parents.

It is also determined the citizenship of the biological parents during the child’s birth, in accordance with the Federal Constitution, related laws and immigration regulations.

“All marriages in this country must be registered under the existing laws. For example, non-Muslim marriages need to be registered under the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976.

“For births that occurred before the registration of the parents’ marriage, the citizenship status of the child follows the citizenship status of the mother. This is in line with provisions of the law under the Federal Constitution,” he added.

In March, Saifuddin said that the Cabinet had agreed to form a special task force to handle the issue of automatic citizenship for children born overseas to Malaysian mothers and would require six months to submit its papers to the Conference of Rulers.

In December 2022, the Federal Court granted leave for a woman, six mothers and an NGO to proceed with their legal challenge on automatic citizenship for children born overseas to Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses.

The decision to allow the appeal comes after an earlier ruling by the Court of Appeal stating that only children born overseas to Malaysian fathers who are married to foreign spouses are entitled to citizenship by operation of law.