Speaking out for the children

GEORGE TOWN: Some 50 concerned citizens including parents and children came together to express their solidarity with the children who were rescued from a baby trafficking ring earlier this year.

The gathering called ‘We Voice For The Children’, was initiated by Creativity At Heart, a child guidance centre in Penang.

Organiser Priscilla Ho said they wanted people to feel for the children who were taken from their adoptive parents during the police operation called ‘Ops Pintar Sayang’.

Ho said the adoptive parents were not traffickers as they were only involved in illegal adoption of the children under the Child Act.

Penang police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Abdul Rahim Hanafi was reported as saying that 10 children, aged between two months and eight years old, were sold by a syndicate.

She added that the children were taken away from their adoptive parent without prior notice and such actions were not called for.

Penang Health, Welfare, Caring Society and Environment Committee chairman Phee Boon Poh who was also present, expressed his disagreement with the way the children and their adoptive parents were treated by the police.