The National Registration Department (NRD) and non-governmental organisations need to work together to speed up the process of registering children who have yet to be registered.

Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said children should not become the victims of parents who did not register their children due to problems they were facing.

"Most of the marriages (of the parents concerned) were legal but were registered abroad and the registrations were not endorsed again within the country because they feared that there were possibilities other parties who objected to the wedding might come to know about them. Then, the children become the victims.

"Do not blame the NRD. The children are clean (innocent), the parents are the ones who cause the problems.

"The JPN will be fair to the children who are victimised so that they can receive education in schools, get valid documents,” he said at the gathering of the people with the Deputy Prime Minister in Kepala Batas today.

Zahid said he had empowered State Education Department Directors to cooperate with all parties concerned in efforts to speed up the registration process for these children.