Give priority in granting citizenship to children in welfare homes, says S'wak minister

SIBU: Children and infants in welfare homes should be given priority in obtaining citizenship, says a Sarawak minister.

Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah (pic) urged the Home Ministry to give special consideration to their cases.

She noted that many underage residents of welfare homes were still stateless, despite some of them having birth certificates.

"We have communicated this to the Home Minister (Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail) in committee meetings over Federal Constitution Clause 15A where we requested special (attention to) children in welfare homes.

"This is especially for abandoned babies where we have no way of tracing their parents and citizenship," she said at the Hari Raya Plaza Merdeka launch event in Kuching on Saturday (March 23).

She said Saifuddin had approved her ministry's request to grant citizenship status to seven children in Sarawak welfare homes.

"Alhamdulillah, the Minister has taken our appeal seriously and approved all citizenship applications for these children.

"Four have already received their citizenship certificates while three more are waiting for theirs," she added.

Fatimah said that potential adoptive parents could now apply to adopt these children without encountering issues.