Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said this was because she had reason to doubt the validity of the blood relationship between the child and parents in some of the claims.
"If the child is theirs, why are they (children) not with them (parents)? This is the reason for doubt," she told reporters when met at the Zero Tolerance for Violence @ KPWKM Anti-Sexual Harassment Advocacy 2024 at Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Serdang near here, today.
Nancy said any application for the return of the children to their family will also be subject to a health check to ensure they are not victims of sexual crimes and with court approval.
According to Nancy, there have been about 200 applications from parents seeking the return of their children who are now placed at several "safe places".
"I hope these children can be released soon as we also know how the parents, also the children, feel to be separated," she said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (KPWKM) in a statement today said that a total of 560 children, comprising 283 boys and 277 girls, are currently placed at "Safe Places" with JKM granted temporary custody of the children for two months by the court under Section 25(2)(a) of the Child Act 2001.
It said 884 JKM officers were involved in Op Global carried out since last Sept 11 and the department had also activated a special line at numbers 03-8323 2190 and 03-8323 2191 to facilitate the channelling of information regarding the children caught in Op Global.
-- BERNAMA
