By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, Nov 29: Four-year old Mikayla Hanna has finally received her citizenship document today after waiting for three years since she was adopted.
The little girl was adopted by her parents when she was a year old and under the care of the Sarawak Social Welfare Department (JKM).
Her father, Yusuf Kamil, 34, said he and his wife Nuridzyan Shazwani Ja’afar, 33, applied for their daughter’s citizenship in Sept 2019.
“I applied for the citizenship through the National Registration Department’s (NRD) website. We followed up with the matter constantly by phone calls and sending emails to the authorities so that the matter would be expedited,” he told reporters at the Media Room at Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) Complex here today.
Yusuf also explained that despite Mikayla’s ‘stateless’ status previously, the family did not really have any problem with sending her to kindergarten because she had a legal document from the court.
Earlier, Minister for Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah witnessed the handing over of documents from Sarawak NRD director Awang Afferoz Awang Marikan to Yusuf in a simple ceremony.
Also present were Deputy Minister of Women and Childhood Development Datuk Rosey Yunus, Sarawak JKM director Noriah Ahmad, the ministry’s permanent secretary Dr Rashidah Bolhassan and Social Development Council executive secretary Dr Zufar Yadi Brendan Abdullah. — DayakDaily
