PETALING JAYA: The Federal Court’s ruling that a boy born illegitimately to a Malaysian father and Filipino mother is not entitled to Malaysian citizenship is a “lost opportunity” for the court to accord justice to the child, says an NGO.
Family Frontiers said the non-citizen child would continue to face barriers in accessing public education and healthcare, along with “insecure family unity”.
“He will have to apply annually to be admitted into the national school system on a student visa, where he is also ineligible for aid and healthcare programmes,” it said in a statement.
In a narrow 4-3 verdict by the Federal Court last Friday, judge Rohana Yusuf dismissed the appeal as the boy was illegitimate at the time of his birth and the parents were only married five months later.
She also said the Federal Constitution states that an illegitimate child follows the citizenship of the mother.
While the judges in the majority decision suggested for the boy to apply for citizenship under Article 15(2) of the Constitution, Family Frontiers said this was a long process that could take up to 16 years.
It also noted that Malaysia was one in three countries that denied men equal rights in conferring citizenship to their children born out of wedlock.
“It is therefore necessary to grant citizenship to every child whose parent is Malaysian, whether born within Malaysia or outside, notwithstanding the marital status or gender of their Malaysian parent,” it said.
It said the reality was that children born overseas were forced to take on the foreign parent’s nationality, as there were no provisions by Malaysian overseas missions to provide emergency travel documents that allowed the child to return to Malaysia and apply for citizenship.
Family Frontiers said children born in a foreign country required legal status, either by way of a visa or citizenship, leaving Malaysian parents no choice but to accept their foreign spouses’ nationality for their child.
“There are no sustainable solutions being offered to protect these large numbers of children who are without citizenship,” it said. “These provisions that prohibit Malaysians from conferring their citizenship to their children could lead to an increased risk of statelessness.”