Malaysia: stateless children can attend school

Non-citizen children in Malaysia, whose citizenship application has yet to be approved, are allowed to enrol in schools, reported The Star newspaper on January 18.

A Malaysian family at home (Source: thestar)
A Malaysian family at home (Source: thestar)

The newspaper quoted Malaysian Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid as saying that those children could attend school if at least one parent is a Malaysian citizen. Parents and legal guardians are given a period of two years to complete the documents.

However, if the citizenship is not obtained within the stipulated time, the Education Ministry will still allow the child to continue schooling, he added.

There are many stateless children in Malaysia, who have at least one foreign parent without legal marriage documents or who were born in Malaysia but parents do not hold the Malaysian citizenship. Source from Vietnamplus.

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