‘Newborn babies must be registered immediately’

MIRI: Newborn babies including those born out of wedlock must be registered immediately, says Minister of Welfare, Community Well Being, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah.

She said the registration of birth is important to determine the citizenship status of a child.

“Children with citizenship status are eligible for privileges provided by the government which include school textbook loans, school special grants, health checks, supplementary food plan and many others,” she said during the presentation of citizenship certificates under Article 15A of the Federal Constitution here yesterday.

She said her ministry had so far received 366 citizenship applications, and from the number, 95 had been approved including five that were approved yesterday. Seventeen others received their birth certificates.

“Most of the applications involve irregular marriage issues, late birth registration, child adoption and baby dumping,” she said

The National Registration Department ( NRD) has extended the Special Taskforce Programme ( PPK) to address the issue of people without identification documents.

The state NRD implemented 158 PPK operations throughout the state with 6,784 late birth registration applications received from Oct to 31 Dec 2017.

“As of March 19 this year, 11 PPK operations have been implemented, with 371 late birth registrations received,” she said.

Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin, Assistant Minister of Women, Family and Childhood Development Rosey Yunus, Assistant Minister of Community Well Being Datuk Francis Harden Hollis, state NRD director Jasni Jubli and Majenah Lass from Miri Resident’s office were among those present.