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Father given temporary custody of deported girl
Send the child to school. Ensure that her step-mother does not harass her but treats her kindly. These were the instructions from Colombo’s Chief Magistrate Kusala Sarojini Weerawardena when she released the nine-year-old girl -- who was deported from Malaysia - on temporary custody, to her father on February 28.

The Magistrate has also ordered that officials of the Department of Probation and Child Care visit the girl in Kilinochchi, where she would be living with her father, and submit a report at the next hearing that has been fixed for June 28.

The girl (name withheld to protect her identity) was produced in court for the third time since her deportation from Kuala Lumpur early on the morning of February 17 and first produced the same day before court by the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA). When the child landed at the Bandaranaike International Airport a person claiming to be her grandmother had also been there to meet her and both the girl and the woman had been taken to a shelter run by the Salvation Army by the NCPA.

When the girl was produced in court for the first time, the Chief Magistrate had instructed that she be examined by a doctor and allowed the NCPA, which was suspecting that this could be a case of trafficking, to continue inquiries. When court reviewed the case again on February 28, the girl's father had been present while the medical report had ruled out any abuse of the child.

An NCPA spokesman said that according to the statement given by the girl's father he was living in Kilinochchi. When the girl's mother committed suicide unable to face severe bouts of asthma, the girl had been just eight months old. Her grandmother had taken over the care of the girl. Subsequently the father had remarried. When a relative suggested that the child should be sent to Canada, where her maternal grandparents were living he had agreed, come to Colombo and got her a passport. He, however, did not know how she would be taken to Canada.

The girl was detected by Malaysian immigration authorities in January when she landed in Kuala Lumpur on an alleged forged passport, claiming she was a victim of the tsunami as her parents had been killed in the disaster.

She had reportedly gone to Kuala Lumpur with a Canadian woman of Sri Lankan Tamil origin on her passport that had the photograph of a different girl. After consultation with Canadian officials based in Kuala Lumpur and assurances that legal action would be initiated in Canada, the woman had been allowed to proceed to Canada.

When an unidentified person posted the girl's Sri Lankan passport - sans an exit stamp or a visa to enter Malaysia -- issued in August 2004 and a ticket to Colombo to the Malaysian immigration authorities, the officials in consultation with the Sri Lankan High Commission there had deported the girl to Colombo. The High Commission, in turn, had liaised with the NCPA and the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry's consular division and made arrangements for the girl to be met by NCPA representatives on arrival at the airport.

Soon after her arrival, the NCPA began making inquiries whether it was a case of child trafficking. The Sunday Times in an exclusive story headlined 'Child trafficking?' on February 20 reported the deportation of the girl from Malaysia.

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