Published on: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 |
Kota Kinabalu: Every effort is being made to speed up applications to adopt children in the State.
In giving the assurance, State Welfare Services Department Director Datuk Mastor Samin said the department would assist applicants in any way it can to expedite the process.
"Presently, the department is processing the applications based on the jurisdiction of the Adoption Act 1960 (Amended 2001). Nonetheless, several administrative procedures in relation to the adoption process have been streamlined with the Adoption Act 1952 enforced in the peninsula.
"We adopt some practices in the peninsula that suit the jurisdiction of the Act here. The most apparent one is the issuance of the child's personal identity documents, particularly the birth certificate that is to be expedited so that the adoption process can run smoothly," he told Daily Express.
According to him, there are also amendments that have been made to protect the welfare of the children.
One of them, Mastor said, is the omission of words 'adopted', 'adopter' or 'adoptive' or similar ones on the birth certificate of the child that is stated in Clause 5 of the Act, which was enforced in 2001.
He said the Government considered the omission of those words as necessary to prevent the possibility that the knowledge or fact of being adopted would have adverse psychological effects on the adopted child who is unprepared to know his/her actual background.
Before 2001, he said, the word 'adopted' appeared on the certificate but since the gazetting of the particular amendment in 2001, it is no longer practised.
Although the probation period for temporary guardianship is between six months and one year, he said, sometimes they could shorten the period to less than six months for certain cases where suitability between the child and the applicant is very strong.
On the number of days to process the applications, Mastor said: "Normally for abandoned babies/children, we would make sure that the police investigation on them is settled.
"And then, we can start processing the applications. Otherwise, we have to wait until the police solve the cases to avoid complications such as the family members coming forward to claim the child."
Another reason that causes many applicants to wait for many years to adopt, he said, is because the supply cannot meet the demand for children.
"Just imagine, the number of children who can be adopted is not many in the Children's Home in Beringgis, Papar, but the number of applicants to adopt is close to 700.
"That is why the department has to be careful in its screening so that only suitable and the best applicants can adopt," he said.
So far, Mastor stated that only nine applications have been approved for child adoption in the State.
