A Case Study on Citizenship Application by Stateless Adopted Children in Malaysia

Abstract

One of the reasons for stateless children in Malaysia is they are adopted yet their biological parents are either unknown or non-Malaysian. The number will keep increasing if there is no change implemented by our government to solve this issue.  This paper aims to analyze the function of adoption in matters of statelessness and see how it assists these stateless children. as well as to study the application of citizenship by adopted children and how the decision is being made by the National Registration Department and court in Malaysia. A qualitative approach was applied by conducting a case analysis of the citizenship application. Based on the analysis, it is found that there is a chance for the adopted children to obtain citizenship by application to the court under Article 14(1)(b) of the Federal Constitution. Another method is by proving "special circumstances as it thinks fits" to the National Registration Department under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution. However, there would be less hassle if clear amendments are made to our Federal Constitution and Adoption Act 1952 to grant Malaysian citizenship to adopted children by Malaysians despite the status of their biological parents. Additionally, there exists an urge for the National Registration Department to provide specific guidelines and criteria to approve citizenship applications for these adopted children.