Suri Kempe, president of Family Frontiers, said underage visa holders find it difficult to comply with the condition that they must leave the country and then return in order for their visas to be renewed.

“How do you expect a five-year-old child to do this?

“This rule is creating a lot of anxiety for mothers at a time when their children are not being allowed back into the country,” she said when speaking at a forum today on aspects of citizenship laws that were not family-friendly for Malaysian women.

“Foreign men married to Malaysian women are prohibited from getting a job here in Malaysia. This also places a burden on the women to bear the cost of living alone.”

She called upon the government to withdraw its appeal against the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruling last September that citizenship by operation of law must be granted to children born abroad to Malaysian women.

She said she hoped the government would honour the court ruling in the interests of Malaysian mothers and their children embroiled in the ordeal.

The appellate court will hear the case on March 23.

‘Registration department in different states have their own requirements’

Another activist, Gaithiri Siva, echoed Suri’s plea for the government to withdraw its appeal. She said the impending appeal had placed her in a state of uncertainty on the status of her children.

She also lamented the refusal of government agencies to simplify the process of applying for citizenship.

“I am in a WhatsApp group of affected mothers, who have shared how different branches of the national registration department (JPN) in different states have come up with their own requirements when it comes to preparing documents.

“There is now a lack of procedural clarity on how to submit documents for our children,” she said.

Towards the end of the forum, moderator Tehmina Kaoosji made an emotional request to the government to withdraw its appeal, and for the public to support an end to citizenship laws that put Malaysian mothers at a disadvantage.

The broadcast journalist is also on a personal quest to acquire her citizenship, which was rejected twice by the JPN since she was unaccompanied by her Malaysian Chinese mother, who died six months ago.

Family Frontiers launched a petition last year calling upon the government to withdraw its appeal on the High Court ruling.