BANGKOK: Thailand's health ministry has ordered public and private hospitals to follow stricter rules on birth certification in a bid to stop "phantom father" networks obtaining Thai nationality for children by falsely naming Thai men as their fathers, an official said on Friday (Sept 18).
Deputy Thai government spokesperson Ploythalay Laksameesaengchan said agencies were coordinating on prevention, inspection and enforcement to keep birth notifications from being used as a route to unlawfully obtained nationality, protecting the credibility of the nationality system and national security.
Under four guidelines for the hospital-issued birth document, Ploythalay said hospitals may certify only the birth as it occurred at the facility, and if the father-child relationship is in doubt, they should advise parents to obtain DNA testing at a state-accredited institute for the civil registrar's consideration.
Ploythalay said records must be based on parents' original identity documents and uploaded immediately to the designated system to prevent later alteration, noting that no single official may handle the entire process, with medical certification, data entry and final sign-off separated.
Hospitals are barred from registering births at district offices on families' behalf and from issuing the document for children not born at the hospital, except in emergency transfers where a nurse cut the umbilical cord in transit, she said.
She said staff were told to flag warning signs, including foreign mothers unable to give basic details about the father, fathers who never appear or take no part in the mother's care, antenatal care at a location inconsistent with the family's address without good reason, and attempts to change the father's name in medical records after the birth is logged. - Xinhua
