Illegal adoption syndicate busted by NRD

PUTRAJAYA: A fee of between RM8,000 and RM20,000 is the price range to illegally adopt a child.

A decade-old syndicate, operating out of a maternity clinic in Petaling Jaya, has been falsifying birth documents, which will help declare a couple as the biological parents of an adopted child.

The syndicate has been uncovered by the National Registration Department (NRD), following the arrest of two men in their 60s, who are a doctor and an agent.

“The doctor will sign a false LM01 birth registration form, which will claim the couple are the child’s biological parents.

“The agent acts as a runner to help the parents register the child’s birth at the NRD,” department directorgeneral Datuk Ruslin Jusoh said.

The NRD’s investigation and enforcement division caught the doctor in Putrajaya on Monday, while the agent was nabbed in Melaka the same day.

“With the arrest of the suspects, the NRD is able to partially solve a syndicate involving the falsifying of birth records which we have been tracing since 2009,” said Ruslin.

“The NRD has blacklisted some 200 birth records due to the discovery of some discrepancies. A lot of them are aged 12 to 16.

“Many children with falsified records found their birth certificates had been blacklisted when attempting to register for MyKad,” said Ruslin.

The NRD will trace those whose birth certificates have been blacklisted.

“We are urging parents of children with blacklisted birth certificates to sort out the registration of their adopted children,” said Ruslin.