HOME Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said his ministry would expedite the constitutional amendment on citizenship.

He said the amendment has been discussed by the cabinet and presented to the Conference of Rulers.

“Now the wording and language used in the bill are being fine-tuned,” he said when winding up the PKR National Congress at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre today.

On the parole system, mandatory attendance orders and licensed release for inmates, he said besides reducing prison congestion, the programmes had positive results as only one out of 800 inmates ended up back in prison.

“Technically, they are prisoners, but are physically outside. (Under these programmes), we have looked for nearly 200 companies, including Panasonic and SWCorp, at which they can find work. We will start more programmes like these to care for inmates,” he said.

Saifuddin said another settlement for children of illegal migrants would be opened in Papar, Sabah, next month to house kids abandoned by their parents escaping Immigration operations.

On November 1, he reportedly said some of the 1,000 foreign children housed at 19 Immigration depots have been transferred to a temporary centre in Nilai, Negri Sembilan.

The transfer was on humanitarian grounds, in line with the government’s commitment in protecting the rights of children no matter their status, as stated in the Child Act 2001 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. – Bernama, November 26, 2023.