A toddler and a pair of three-year old twins have been recently kidnapped within days of each other, both by their respective fathers and taken to foreign countries.

One and a half-year-old Dannya Hana Leanora ( left ) was taken away by her father, Lenardi Amnisar Yuliawiratnam,32, on Jan 16, from McDonalds near Petronas, Ampang Jaya in Selangor.

NONE The twins Alexander Siddarth Hobelsberger ( right ) and Eva Anjali Hobelsberger were abducted by their father Ralf Hobelsberger, 47, on Jan 24,  during his designated visiting hours.

The Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) today named the police, the Immigration Department and the National Registration Department as the authorities whose indifference and lack of action allowed the children to be taken out of the country.

Its executive director Ivy Josiah said if the authorities had been efficient, the children would have been safe with their lawful custodians now.

Police reports lodged

 She said the authorities had failed to act speedily and efficiently even after police reports were lodged.           

NONE “Dannya ( left ) was sneaked out to Batam Island, Indonesia through Malaysian waters. If the Immigration Department had alerted all possible exits, be it airports, or bus terminals in time, my baby would have been with me now,” said a teary-eyed Farah Shamsuddin who had been breast-feeding her child.  

She disclosed the child has been issued a new birth certificate by the registration department with her name changed to Leanora Daanya Hana Lenardi Amsinar, which is illegal according to Islam.

The child was also issued with a new passport even though the father did not have the original birth certificate with him.

In the other case, the twins were brought out of the country by Hobelsberger, a German citizen, who had overstayed in Malaysia.

“The Immigration Department should have arrested him. But he was allowed to leave the country using his German passport. How is this possible?,” asked the grandmother and the sole guardian of the twins, Santhakumari A D Nair.

Last wish

She said Shareen, mother of the twins, had passed away from cancer last year and her last wish was for the children to stay with their grandmother.

“She did not trust her husband and therefore did not register their marriage,” said Nair choking in anguish.

NONE She doubted the government’s ability to help her to get Alexander and Eva ( left ) back and held the immigration department accountable for not informing her when the children were flown out of Malaysia.

Josiah warned  single mothers to stay alert when bringing their child to meet their ex-husbands.

“This has become a trend now, and I urge single mothers out there to stay alert and meet their ex-husbands with  their children at a public place,” she added.

She said WAO would continue to fight to bring the kidnapped children back to their respective custodians.