JOHOR BARU: A 55-year-old mother is looking for the biological parents of her adopted child to help with the adoption process as they have both gone missing.

       According to housewife Koh Siew Moi, the child's parents - Tan (father) and Quay (mother) - initially left their five-year-old child for her to babysit as both of them were busy working at a restaurant in Bukit Indah, back in 2016.

       Koh explained that she was introduced to the parents by a friend who had been looking for a babysitter.

       "I thought I wanted to be a part-time babysitter back then, as all of my children were working.

       She (the child) was given to me back in July 2016 when she was about four-months-old, and her parents agreed to pay between RM1,600 and RM2,000 a month,” said Koh

       "However, that was the last time I saw them," she added when met by reporters at a press conference in Taman Sierra Perdana here on Thursday (Nov 11).

       Koh added that the parents never came back, even after the child fell ill after being in her care for 10 months.

       "I wanted to meet them, but they gave me the excuse of having an emergency. They have also suddenly stopped paying for the child's necessities,” said Koh

       "So I decided to go to their workplace, only to be told by the owner that both of them had not come to work for weeks, " she added, saying that she then tried calling the parents but the number was no longer working.

       Meanwhile, Koh's eldest daughter, 28-year-old Linda Law said that she then traced the address of the child's parents based on her birth certificate.

       "I went there around 2018, and upon arrival the house owner said that he had never met or knew any information regarding the duo. We then decided to make a police report, and the police officer suggested the child be placed into a welfare home,” said Law.

       "But she has been a part of our family and all we want right now was for her parents to legally hand her over to us so that it would be easy for us to send her to school or process her identification card or passport," she said.

       Meanwhile, Kami Prihatin NGO association advisor Syed Othman Syed Abdullah said that he had organised a meeting between Koh and the National Registration Department's (JPN) and the Welfare Department's (JKM) to help address their issues.

       "One of the requirements of adoption under the Adoption Act 1952 is that if both biological parents are married, both of them are required to sign an agreement letter handing over the child welfare to Koh,” he said

       "If the biological parents are not married, then only the biological mother's signature is needed," added Syed Othman, saying that he hoped that both parents would come forward and help solve the issue.