KUCHING, Oct 27: Former Bukit Assek assemblywoman Irene Chang calls on the Sarawak State Secretary’s Office and Immigration Department to recognise children legally adopted by Sarawakian parents as Sarawakians.
She said that denying these children the letter “K” in their identification cards based on the grounds that they had no Sarawak connection is wrong by law.
When a child is legally adopted by Sarawakian parents, the issue of the Sarawak connection must have already been established and accepted by the District Office as required in law, she claimed.
“Hence, no further consideration should even be raised when these Article 15A (of the Federal Constitution) successful applicants went to JPN (National Registration Department) to apply for the issuance of their ICs.
“Based on the fact that the children’s adoption was legal, the letter ‘K’ should have been inserted into their ICs without any question,” said Chang in a statement today.
Having helped with six such cases since August 2021, she said a lot of these children do not have sufficient financial means to travel in and out of Sarawak every three months to comply with Sarawak’s immigration law for non-Sarawakians.
She thus urged the authorities to grant these children their rightful Sarawakian status so they would not end up as non-Sarawakians for the rest of their lives while their family members are. — DayakDaily
