Left in limbo: Mothers speak of M'sian citizenship hurdles for overseas-born kids

Former lawyer S Naveena could not hold back her tears when speaking about the challenges she had faced fighting for Malaysian citizenship for her 18-month-old son.

Her life was turbulent and filled with uncertainties as she was forced to travel back and forth between France, where her husband and her three-year-old firstborn son resided, and Malaysia, where her younger son was "stuck" at her mother's house.

Naveena's second son cannot leave Malaysia as he is stateless and unable to apply for a Malaysian passport.

"I married a Sri Lankan, a refugee who settled down in France in 2013. He worked in France as an electrician. I gave birth to two sons in 2016 and 2018," she told the media when attending a forum on gender-equal citizenship in Petaling Jaya earlier today.

Naveena had applied for citizenship for both of her children at the Malaysian embassy in Paris. Malaysian citizenship was important for her children, given that her husband is a stateless man.

However, the Federal Constitution only confers automatic citizenship upon overseas-born children of Malaysian men.

When Naveena first learnt that her father was ill in 2016, she decided to take her then eight-week-old firstborn back to Malaysia via an emergency passport issued to her son.

She immediately wrote to then home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to seek his help, and her first-born received citizenship four months later.

So, when she found out that her father had fallen sick again last year, she decided to take the risk and applied for an emergency passport for her second-born.

"Subsequently, my dad passed away. I thank God that the Malaysian embassy had helped me. But what I didn't know was that I was going to be stuck here in the next one year," she said in tears.

This time around, she went to the National Registration Department (NRD) and Home Ministry more than a dozen times without receiving a response in return.

"This has badly affected my life as there is uncertainty. Money and time have been wasted and my kids have to be separated from their parents," she said, adding that the mounting pressure was causing her sleepless nights.

She urged the government to amend the law, saying, "You give (citizenship to children of) Malaysian men, why can't you give it to women as well? Don’t women give birth to children and breastfeed them?" asked Naveena.

The forum, which was organised by a women's rights advocacy group, saw some 20 women who faced similar dilemmas gathering to support each other.

Read more: Activists, ministry seek automatic citizenship for overseas-born kids of M'sian women

Cloris Yow, a 32-year-old chef who married a Chinese national who resided in New Zealand, had applied for citizenship for her three-year-old daughter in December 2016.

The mother of two is still waiting for an answer from the NRD, adding that she was now compelled to live in a separate country from her husband.

“My two children are with me in Malaysia now,” she said.

Her first-born hold a long-term social visit pass which require to be renewed every six months while her second-born, a three-month-old boy, holds Malaysian citizenship.

She said her child may having trouble entering a government school when she turns seven.

"I heard that there will be problems," she said.

Yow urged the government to listen to the grievances of the women who faced similar dilemmas.

While Yow and many Malaysian women with foreign spouses may have other options, such as citizenship from their spouses' countries - they would prefer to maintain their roots by conferring Malaysian citizenship upon their children.

According to the Malaysian Campaign for Equal Citizenship, a movement and support group for Malaysian women facing difficulties in citizenship applications for their children, one Malaysian woman in particular was unable to return home with her daughter.

According to a leaflet that distributed by the group, the woman, who was given the pseudonym “Anna”, married a Chinese man and currently resides in Italy. Her daughter was born in Italy and holds Chinese citizenship.

"Her marriage is unstable and she is raising her daughter as a single mother in Italy.

"She wishes to return to Malaysia to raise her daughter with the support of her family. However, she is hesitant to file for divorce as this may produce more issues in term of custody due to Italy being a Catholic country, and therefore full custody by one parent not being possible," reads the leaflet.

"She applied for her daughter's citizenship two years ago, but there have been no updates.

"She and her daughter hold Italian visas with an expiry date and would have an issue re-entering Italy thereafter due to the unstable marriage."