Breaking Backdoors to Birth Certs

Groups: Reviewing the system required to address human trafficking

Petalling Jaya: The risk of false birth certificates that contribute to human trafficking, especially children’s involvement, is a serious concern, according to human rights groups.

Experts call for urgent reforms to prevent the problem with aggravation.

Adrian Pereira, executive director and co-founder of the North-South initiative, said that there must be a higher standard of monitoring to discourage professionals to get involved in these unions.

“This problem seems to involve more professions to be monitored. There must be a gold standard to prevent their members from getting involved in such unions.

“This is not the first time this happened. Professional bodies have failed to maintain the integrity of their members, ”he said, asking the main ones to be accused and convicted.

It was reported yesterday that the Malaysian anti-corruption commission (MACC) held 16 people because it is assumed to bribe officials to register non-Centile births.

Sumitha Shaanthinni Kishna, the director of the Advocacy Journey group, stressed the urgent need for reforms within the system, stressing that false records could facilitate child trafficking.

She said that these unions could allow traffickers to transport children over unobserved borders using counterfeit documents.

“The fraudulent birth registration schemes are related to human trafficking, especially children’s trafficking, which makes traffickers easier to move children over borders without increasing suspicion.

“This scheme is also related to illegal adoptions, in which the true origin of kidnapped children is hidden with false documents, which could lead to children’s trafficking and operation,” she said.

In order to address these issues, she asked for the implementation of a fully automated birth registration system to ensure the integrity of the officers involved.

“This scheme could not have been possible without the involvement of government officials.

“Therefore, internal mechanisms must be strengthened to prevent unauthorized use.

“Malaysia should also completely automate the integration of data on the hospital and the national registration department, which is designed to make birth registration, including all private hospitals and clinics,” she added.

Daniel Khoo, the head of public relations of the Malaysian Humanitarian Organization (MHO), warned that false birth certificates could open the way for larger fraud issues involving foreigners without documents in Malaysia.

He warned that if foreign people have managed to acquire these important documents, they could use them wrong to access assistance schemes.

“This would obviously affect the country’s resources, because foreign people without documents could request assistance from the government or even non -governmental organizations,” he said.

“The government must take serious measures, especially if it involves people in the system itself. We are afraid that this would attract more migrants entering the country and would receive false documents from such a scheme, ”Khoo added.

Meanwhile, Ragunath Kesavan, the commission of the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam), said that the fraudulent registration of a birth certificate is a crime.

However, he said that the scheme may not only involve citizens, because the local children born of marriage could also be affected.

“The fraudulent records involve many parts and this must be investigated, and measures should be taken against anyone who is involved.

“Part of the reason for the fraudulent registration of birth certificates is the difficulties imposed for adopting children and the stigma of approval of the birth certificates that state that the child is adopted,” he said.