Father based in S’pore reunites with firstborn after six months

Lim meeting his son for the first time in six months at the CIQ Complex in Johor Baru.

TEARS flowed when a father reunited with his six-month-old baby in Johor Baru after leaving him just a few days after his birth.

Eddy Lim, 38, who works in Singapore, said it had been painful for him to be apart from his wife and firstborn the past six months as he could not return to Malaysia because of the Covid-19 travel ban.

He said his wife gave birth to their son, whom they named Yu Chen, on March 5 and that he left the country three days later to work in Singapore.

“Shortly after that, Malaysia implemented the movement control order and I could not go home to be with my family.

“I could only watch my son grow bigger day by day through daily video calls, and I was worried that he would not know who I was because we had no physical interaction, ” he told StarMetro.

He said that after completing her maternity leave, his 33-year-old wife Ng See Yunn left their baby in the care of their sister-in-law here and joined him in Singapore to resume work as a dental nurse.

He saw a glimmer of hope after reading recent news reports about families reuniting with their children with the help of Immigration Department and Singapore’s Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA).

Lim contacted Johor Jaya assemblyman Liow Cai Tung for help, last month, to allow them to bring their baby boy to Singapore.

He said their application was approved by both authorities within 10 days and the baby was brought to the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) here to be picked up by Lim.

Yu Chen was among eight children Liow helped reunite with their families at the CIQ complex.

Liow said he was happy that he could help families reunite, especially in time for the Mid-Autumn Festival, which was a celebration of togetherness and reunion.

Meanwhile, Stulang assemblyman Andrew Chen Kah Eng also helped four baby girls and a baby boy reunite with their families after spending about six months apart from each other.

The infants, aged between five and 12 months, were picked up by their parents, who worked in Singapore, at the CIQ complex.

“The babies were brought here by their caretakers from Klang, Kuala Lumpur, Muar, Batu Pahat and Johor Baru, ” said Chen, whose team took about one week to help the parents with their applications.

“This is a special arrangement made possible by our Immigration Department and the ICA, so parents who wish to reunite with their children this way can write in to the authorities, ” he said.