The Home Ministry has approved less than five percent of 10,105 citizenship applications filed between 2019 and 2022 for children born out of wedlock and adopted stateless children, granted under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution.

Specifically, the 242 recipients comprise children born to a foreign mother whose marriage to a Malaysian father was only registered after she had given birth in Malaysia; as well as stateless children who have been legally adopted and whose birth parents are unknown...