BANGKOK, Nov 14 — The Royal Malaysian Police and its Thai counterpart will be stepping up efforts to resolve the long-standing issue of people having dual Malaysian and Thai citizenship.

Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun said holders of dual Malaysian and Thai citizenship would be asked to take up one citizenship and renounce the other. 

"We (Malaysia and Thailand) need to make a stand on this issue. We will ask them to decide which citizenship they want to hold, either they want to drop the Malaysian or Thai citizenship,” he told the media at the end of the 25th Departmental Review of the Joint Thailand-Malaysia Working Committee Meeting on Criminal Activities, here, today.

"Both countries are committed to finding amicable solutions to the long-running problem of dual citizenship holders in the coming months or years,” he said, adding that Malaysia was also facing "a lot of problems” involving the issue.

Malaysia and Thailand, according to Fuzi, have mutual understanding on the matter.

Also present during the meeting was his Thai counterpart, Gen Chakthip Chaijinda.

The authorities in Thailand have long accused people with dual citizenship of involvement in criminal activities, especially related to the armed conflict in southern Thailand.

Dual citizenship holders have been alleged fleeing to Malaysia after committing criminal acts in southern Thailand.

"They also fled to Thailand after committed crime in Malaysia. It’s vice versa,” said Mohamad Fuzi.

On Malaysian criminals seeking refuge in Thailand, the IGP said Bukit Aman had identified those hiding in the neighbouring country and was seeking the cooperation of Royal Thai Police to track them and send them back to Malaysia to face justice.

Malaysian and Thai police had very good cooperation in this matter, he stressed.

"They (Thai police) have sent many of them (Malaysian criminals back to Malaysia). This is a continuous operation between the two police forces,” he said.

On the meeting, he said, both sides discussed various issues of common interest, including smuggling in the border areas, human trafficking, the threat posed by IS, Macau Scam and other transnational crimes.

He said Malaysian and Thai police which had a close relationship, were working closely to deal with these issues.

Meanwhile, Chakthip acknowledged the close cooperation given by Malaysia in resolving the dual citizenship issue.

He said people with dual citizenship possessed different Thai and Malaysian identities which made it difficult for the authorities to trace them and resolve the issue altogether.

"They have different names (in Malaysia and in Thailand). We did give their Thai names for the Malaysian side to send them back, but still could not find them. That is the difficulty, but we must find a solution to this problem,” he said. — Bernama