SEVERAL infants have not been issued birth certificates because their parents could not pay the mother’s clinic fees for giving birth, the Child Commissioner Leda Koursoumba yesterday. Koursoumba said that infants whose parents could not pay the clinic fees were not given their birth certificates from the state because the clinics refused to provide the necessary documentation. “Using birth documentation as leverage to secure owed fees is illegal and unfortunately we received several complaints of parents being blackmailed in this manner,” said Koursoumba.

The commissioner explained that the proper procedure would be for clinics to provide the necessary documentation so that birth certificates could be issued, and if clinic fees were still owed then could then they could proceed to secure them. “Infants cannot be left legally unprotected, as if they do not exist, just because clinics are owed money,” said Koursoumba. She said that throughout the past three years she had informed the Cyprus Medical Association and several clinics about the legislation, with many subsequently complying. Three cases of doctors and clinics continuing this practice were reported to the police, with criminal charges already being pressed against them. But Koursoumba complained that this had not been the end of the matter, as despite the penalised clinics belatedly issuing the information, the interior ministry had still failed to register the infants, due to “difficulties encountered in different departments of the Ministry”.

 Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis said yesterday he was unaware of any problems in this area, but added Koursoumba should provide suggestions for amendments if she deemed it necessary. Another cause for concern for the commissioner is illegal immigrants who give birth in Cyprus and then avoid trying to secure a birth certificate for their children due to fear of being caught. She said that it was “totally unacceptable that the current legislation fails to provide a system by which every birth is documented”. “The only way to protect the rights of all children born is if the law is changed so that every birth, regardless of the legal or financial status of the parents, is documented, so that the state knows of the existence of the infants,” said the commissioner.

Cyprus Mail