KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 1 ― The four children of the Malaysian couple detained in Sweden will be given counselling to help them overcome their trauma and psychological stress.

Women, Family and Community Development Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Dr Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur said the counseling would be managed by the Social Welfare Department (JKM) soon.

“We were made to understand that the children will be taken to their mother’s hometown in Kelantan. So, the counselling will be handled by ourofficers there," she told reporters at Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s residence in Jalan Langgak Duta, here today.

Dr Noorul Ainur was there to attend the meeting between Najib, his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and the four children who arrived here from Stockholm, early today.

The four children are Aishah, 14, Ammar, 12, Adam, 11 and Arif, seven.

Their parents ― Azizul Raheem Awaluddin, an employee of Tourism Malaysia in Sweden, and Shalwati Norshal, a teacher who is on unpaid leave, were detained since December 18 on a charge of beating the hand of their youngest son for not praying.

Dr Noorul Ainur also said JKM would also monitor the children’s condition while being under the care of their aunt, Shaleena Norshal, 42.

“The monitoring of the children will be done on weekly basis and we will submit the report to Wisma Putra to be forwarded to the Social Service Department of Sweden,” she said.

She said one of the reasons that eased the process of bringing the children home was the fact that Malaysia and Sweden had ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child on Feb 17, 1995.

“Article 3 and Article 20 stipulated under the Convention really helped the effort to bring the children home.

“This is because Article 3 stated that all actions concerning the child shall take full account of his or her best interest, while Article 20 stated that the State is obliged to provide special protection for a child deprived of the family environment and to ensure that appropriate alternative family care or institutional placement is available in such cases.

“The article also said that efforts to meet this obligation shall pay due regard to the child’s ethnics, religious, cultural and linguistic background,” she added. ― Bernama