By Zareef Muzammil
SHAH ALAM, March 22 — A total of 445 citizenship issues involving marriages between locals and foreigners have been successfully resolved by the state government’s special unit, MySEL until 11 March.
State executive councillor for social welfare V Ganabatirau said the number involves four categories of cases covering citizenship (267), adopted children (88), birth certificates (32) and red identity cards (58).
According to him, the highest number of approval was given to the Malay at 50 per cent, Chinese (25 per cent), Indian (15 per cent) and others (10 per cent).
“Since the identity document centre program was introduced in 2018, a total of 2,554 cases were opened based on those categories, including immigration (cases) and others,” he told SelangorKini.
Meanwhile, Ganabatirau said he had appointed two officers to handle the programme by ensuring that every application submitted to the relevant agencies and departments was complete and in order.
“They (officers) do not have any power given by the central government (to approve applications) instead they work with limited power and allowances from me. They also have to go through the same process as other individuals.
“However, in their dedication, they took the cases to the National Registration Department, Immigration Department and the Home Affairs Ministry, besides making updates with the parties involved until the cases are completed,” he said.
MySEL was created to help the poor who do not have the knowledge and the right channels to apply for identity documents, citizenship, birth certificates and identity cards.
MySEL officers also have a role in resolving the problem of children not having birth certificate due to involvement with marriage syndicate at the border, including the failure of parents to register their children’s births due to certain matters
