Kids’ citizenship rights threatened

No rights: A volunteer in a lesson with stateless children in Sabah. Without citizenship, these children cannot go to a regular school or access public healthcare. — Filepic/The Star

THE Malaysian Citizenship Rights Alliance (MCRA) has produced a counter proposal to the Home Ministry’s Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2024, which is listed for continued Second Reading during this current Dewan Rakyat meeting that ends on July 18.

In its current form, the Bill will extend the right of automatic citizenship to children born overseas to Malaysian mothers. However, the government does not intend to make the proposed mothers’ amendment retroactively applicable, which means that it will not provide a pathway to automatic citizenship to children already born overseas to Malaysian mothers.