'Parents are responsible, not the government'

Deputy Home Minister Mohd Azis Jamman said today that the onus is on parents to ensure their children possess the necessary documentation for citizenship applications to prevent them from becoming stateless.

Azis was referring to marriages between foreign women and Malaysian men that remain unregistered at the time of a child's birth.

According to the Federal Constitution, a child is only given automatic Malaysian citizenship if the mother is a citizen.