South Sumatra Ministry Of Law And Human Rights Handles 523 Citizenship Applications In The Last 6 Months

Illustration of services at the Immigration office in Indonesia. (Between)

SOUTH Sumatra - Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham) South Sumatra received 523 citizenship applications from January to June 2023.

Head of the South Sumatra Ministry of Law and Human Rights Regional Office, Ilham Djaya, said the request for citizenship included 56 applications related to dual citizenship and 465 others regarding citizenship status in children and two requests regarding loss of citizenship.

He explained that the request for citizenship was related to Law Number 12 of 2006 concerning citizenship of the Republic of Indonesia.

The application for citizenship, he said, started from the matter of citizenship status for children resulting from mixed marriages and loss of citizenship, especially Indonesian women who married foreign nationals such as Korea, the United States and Taiwan were then divorced.

Based on data on citizenship status from the Directorate General of General Legal Administration (AHU), there were 3,793 children who were recorded as missing or late in choosing their citizenship and there were 507 children who did not register.

Based on Government Regulation Number 21 of 2022, according to him, the problems of mixed marriage children and children losing Indonesian citizenship can be resolved as a concern effort to realize the nation's progress through optimizing human resources, competence and skills possessed by children resulting from mixed marriages and having a great sense of love for Indonesia to contribute to the nation and state.

"Citizens are one of the important elements in a country that is also referred to as a political society. Therefore, it is an obligation for the state to provide protection, as well as a clear legal status for a person's citizenship," he said in Palembang, Monday, July 3, which was confiscated by Antara.

He explained, based on the Article 28D Article (4) the second amendment regulates the citizenship juridiktion which states that everyone has the right to citizenship status.

Thus, he said, apart from being a human right for all people, the right to citizenship status is also a constitutional right which is defined as a right regulated in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia as a result of the state taking responsibility for respecting, protecting, and fulfilling it.

"The right to citizenship based on several principles is regulated in Law Number 12 of 2006 which includes the principles of ius sanguinis, ius soli, the principle of single citizenship, and the principle of dual citizenship," he said.

Quoting Law Number 12 of 2006 which is in line with the message of the United Nations, the Head of the Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of South Sumatra advised that all humans are born free and equal in their dignity and rights.

"The importance of citizenship status is for legal certainty, in order to provide an understanding regarding the problem of citizenship, which is currently increasingly complex, one of which is because more Indonesian citizens are married to foreign nationals, so we continue to socialize about it," said Ilham.