Childcare bylaws delayed by plan to expand children’s shelter

Mariam Al Roumi, the Minister of Social Affairs, told Federal National Council members that a law was delayed by a lack of shelter.

Bylaws on childcare cannot come in until the Sheikh Khalifa Village for Social Care is ready says Minister for Social Affairs, Mariam Al Roumi. Fatima Al Marzooqi / The National

ABU DHABI // The construction of a new and expanded shelter for abandoned children is delaying implementation of a two-year-old law aimed at caring for orphans, the Minister of Social Affairs has told the Federal National Council.

Mariam Al Roumi said a change of plans meant a bigger shelter was on its way, requiring an extra couple of years of work.

She said after the law was published in the official gazette, her ministry met six other entities to put the bylaws together, governing how the law would be executed.

They decided that a shelter, to be called Tala, would be built in Umm Al Quwain at the cost of Dh10 million. The shelter would house babies and children of unknown parentage.

However, after floor plans were drawn up and a completion date was set for this year, the President, Sheikh Khalifa, increased the shelter budget to Dh70 million and said he would take on the full project and build a complete village, to be called Sheikh Khalifa Village for Social Care.

Ms Al Roumi said the bylaws could not be released since they were dependent on the shelter’s existence and that was the sole reason for the delay.

“We have completely changed the planning for this,” she said. “We should now get the building by the start of 2015. This has delayed the bylaws from being passed since most of the bylaws are tied with the shelter.”

She said a clause in the law requiring an abandoned child be reported to police and taken to hospital before going to the shelter was one example of the need for a shelter.

Marwan bin Ghalita, an FNC member from Dubai, said Ms Al Roumi’s response did not justify the delay. He said the bylaws should not be tied to the shelter.

“I don’t think the Khalifa Village has anything to do with the bylaws,” he said. “The law governs so many things aside from that. And the law cannot be executed without the bylaws.”

He said the number of abandoned children was on the rise and there was an urgent need for the implementation of the law.

The minister agreed that the bylaws were crucial, but insisted that the shelter was the foundation of the law.

She said the bylaws were already drawn up, but would not be passed without the shelter.

“We had hoped that the centre would be ready by this year, but upon the President’s orders”, matters had changed.

Mr bin Ghalita said the minister should have told the FNC that the bylaws would be tied to the shelter when they first passed the legislation two years ago.