Nor Azrina Surip said data by the National Registration Department showed that only 19 of the 3,407 citizenship applications had been approved from 2018 to June this year. Seven were rejected.

This, said the Merbok MP, meant the rate of approvals came up to 0.6%.

“It would take 681 years to approve all the child citizenship applications in Malaysia.

“This is appalling and humiliating for children and mothers in Malaysia as it puts them in a precarious situation,” she said in a statement.

Azrina was responding to the home ministry’s written reply in the Dewan Rakyat on the number of citizenship applications received, approved and rejected over the past five years.

Home minister Hamzah Zainudin said 14,000 out of 22,701 citizenship applications were still being processed.

Azrina said the relevant ministries should find the best solution to ensure children’s rights were protected, and that the law would be applied equally and without discrimination.