APPLICATIONS FOR CITIZENSHIP BY PERMANENT RESIDENTS (Request for special consideration)

Haji Rahmat Bin Kenap asked the Minister for Home Affairs and Education whether his Ministry can assist those unfortunate permanent residents, who were born in Singapore but have lost their birth certificates or have forgotten their dates of birth, in getting approval for their applications for citizenship which have been under consideration for a long time because, as holders of blue identity cards, they cannot get employment, hawkers' licences or flats, even under resettlement priority, and are not allowed to stay in another country.

The Minister for Home Affairs and Education (Mr Chua Sian Chin): Sir, it is not possible to give special consideration to applicants for citizenship who claim to be born in Singapore but are unable to produce their birth certificates or other conclusive evidence of birth in Singapore. Otherwise there will be thousands of people claiming that they were born in Singapore. During the re-registration for laminated identity cards in 1966-67 some 1,050 holders of Singapore identity cards were found to have obtained their cards by using other person's Singapore birth certificates. Since then similar cases have come to light. During the last three years. 81 identity cards had to be cancelled because the holders had used other persons' birth certificates to claim birth in Singapore.

However, the Government has sympathetically given special consideration to applications from blue identity card holders who are the only members in their families who are not citizens. This category of applications will, by and large, include those who were genuinely born in Singapore but are unable to produce proof of their birth in Singapore.