KUCHING: The Sarawak government should review its policy on long-term social visit passes for Malaysian couples where the wife is a Sarawakian, says a state lawmaker.
Pending assemblyman Violet Yong said special consideration should be given to husbands whose Sarawakian wives have passed away and who wished to stay on in the state with their Sarawak-born children.
“I voiced out this matter in the state legislative assembly but sadly, Minister in the Premier’s Department Datuk Seri John Sikie just repeated the current policy.
“In other words, he is not addressing the issue,” she said when contacted yesterday.
Yong was commenting on Sikie’s explanation that the long-term social visit passes issued by the Sarawak Immigration Department under the policy for Malaysian couples would no longer be valid once they divorced or their Sarawakian wives had died.
However, Sikie said the divorced or widowed husbands could apply for other long-term passes if they intended to continue living in Sarawak.
“They can apply for an employment pass or temporary work visit pass if they are working in Sarawak.
“For those aged 60 and above, they can apply for a long-term social visit pass for the elderly,” he had said in his winding-up speech at the state assembly on Monday.
Sikie also said that if they remarried another Sarawakian, they could reapply for the long-term social visit pass under the couples policy.
He was replying to Yong’s call in the state assembly last week for the state government to come up with a policy to allow Peninsular Malaysian or Sabahan husbands to continue living in Sarawak after their Sarawakian wives had passed away, especially when there were children involved.Yong had said she brought up the issue because a father from the peninsula with a young daughter born in Sarawak had pleaded for help as he was not allowed to stay on after his Sarawakian wife’s passing.
“When his wife passed away, he was told to leave as he was no longer qualified for a long-term stay in Sarawak.
“He deemed this as unfair to his daughter who is a Sarawakian. She is still young and has no choice but to follow her father back to Peninsular Malaysia,” she said.
Non-Sarawakian Malaysian wives can apply for a certificate of status after two years of marriage, enabling them to live and work in Sarawak indefinitely.
