SOP needed in registering adoption of children
KUCHING: Sarawak needs to establish a standard operating procedure (SOP) in registering the adoption of children, which is being placed under district offices in the state.
State Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah said the process, in some cases, might differ among different districts since no specific SOP of registering adopted children was in place.
She said the process became more complicated if it involved abandoned children, whose citizenship status could not be identified.
“If we know the status (of the child), it will be easier. For instance, adopting a child from a friend or a relative.
“But, there are cases where couples want to adopt children from the Social Welfare Department (mostly abandoned children), where children don’t have any personal documents.”
Fatimah, however, did not single out district offices and was unable to produce figures on cases related to such problems.
Speaking at the launch of Adoption Talk here yesterday, Fatimah said it was important to standardise the adoption process to address citizenship issues among adopted children.
She said the failure to adopt children in a proper way would lead to other problems.
She said this included the child being denied certain benefits given by the government as well as facing issues related to enrolment in schools.