PUTRAJAYA: Visitations between parents and children related to the GISB Holdings Sdn Bhd (GISB) are not allowed yet, says Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.
The Women, Family and Community Development Minister said that the ministry needs to ensure that the safehouses where the children are kept are secured from possible threats, she said.
“If we allow visitation, this will open the floodgates, and those who are not parents of these children will also come,” she told reporters during a ministry event on digitalising state welfare aid.
She warned that there have also been sightings of people lurking near these premises.
“We don’t know if these people are parents or not and what threat they pose,” she said, adding that guards are stationed for protection.
Nancy also responded to allegations by Masjid Tanah MP Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday that some of the children had been taken into custody not from GISB-linked centres, but rather from areas like unrelated rented homes, boarding schools and Tahfiz centres.
“I have already responded (the same day), but she was not at Dewan Rakyat then. Most of these claims are from social media.
“Actually, the Social Welfare Department (JKM) only follows where the police allow us,” she said.
She said that JKM is only involved where there are children, while the police operate in other places they suspect are linked to GISB.
Nancy urged the public not to believe what they see on social media.
She stressed that the ministry will not unnecessarily separate children from their parents. She cited a case where a child was promptly returned to a tenant who was not associated with GISB.
Nancy also clarified that while there were 560 children in JKM’s custody of the JKM, two of the children are currently accompanied by their mothers.
“Some asked why there was a figure of 560, and then 558? That is because two of them are with their mothers.
“This is proof that we don’t want to separate the mother from the child,” she said.
The Social Welfare Department has obtained a two-month temporary custody order for the children from the court under Section 25(2)(a) of the Child Act 2001.
“If the issue is settled, we must release them after two months. However, if we have to keep them for certain reasons, usually legal reasons, we will request for an extension through a court order,” she said.
The first procedure will be for two months, with each following extension for another 2 months, up to a three-year duration, she said.
However, for other serious or legal reasons, the children can be kept till they turn 18 years of age.
