KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 — The mother of a kidnapped daughter has expressed her concerns about how easy it was for her estranged husband to allegedly smuggle their daughter across the national borders of Thailand into Malaysia without proper documentation.
Thai national Anna Leelertwongpakdee through her lawyer Chen Yu Szen said she wonders if many more human smuggling activities were occurring on a daily basis at the Padang Besar border with Thailand after her husband Teh Chuan Kim took their toddler Keilyn into Malaysia on April 17, 2023.
“After almost three months of tirelessly attempting to locate Keilyn, Anna has now reached a point where she wants to seek answers to her questions, how is Keilyn, a four-year-old minor, able to cross national borders without a passport?
“What measures were taken by the Immigration authorities to ensure that proper documentation is in place so that minors such as Keilyn are able to pass through national borders safely?” Chen told Malay Mail in an interview yesterday.
“Does the failure of border security in Padang Besar mean that cases like this are commonplace?” Chen added.
Malay Mail is seeking comments over the matter with the Immigration Department, the Home Ministry and the Thai embassy.
According to materials provided by Chen, Anna married Teh in 2015 and stayed in Subang and Klang for a brief period before moving to Thailand in 2021. Keilyn always stayed with Anna during this time.
Then in November 2021, the Kuala Lumpur High Court dissolved their marriage and they were issued joint custody of Keilyn.
The agreement was Teh would pick Keilyn up from Sunday until Tuesday 7pm, while Anna had to take her to school on Wednesday and Thursday. She would also remain in Anna’s care on Fridays and Saturdays.
According to Anna, this routine was broken on April 18, the day Teh was supposed to return Keilyn to her after his two-day visitation period was over. Anna alleged that Keilyn was kidnapped after Teh did not return the toddler to her at the stipulated time.
According to the affidavits sighted by Malay Mail, Anna said she then received a text message from Teh notifying her he had brought her to Malaysia and when Anna proceeded to call the number, Teh answered and told her he would look after Keilyn and Anna would never see her again.
Anna proceeded to make a police report in Thailand and has now done so in Sentul as well, imploring authorities to look for her kidnapped child. She said she had tried going to an old address of Teh’s but no one was there.
She said she sought CCTV footage at her apartment lobby and saw the last images of Keilyn on April 16, 2023 with Teh and her in-laws at 8.09am at their condominium lobby carrying several bags seemingly about to leave the premises. They were then spotted at Songkhla Hotel around 6 to 7pm through its CCTV footage before they apparently travelled into Malaysia.
On April 19, Anna submitted a request to obtain her daughter’s travel history from the Immigration Department and to her surprise found there were no records of her daughter having left Thailand with Teh. However, records show that Teh had travelled to Malaysia on April 17, 2023.
Apart from that, the 38-year-old mother has obtained an interim injunction against Teh directing him to return Keilyn to her three days from its issue on May 23, 2023. The court urged the police to do what it can to help facilitate the injunction and for Keilyn to return to Thailand with Anna. The court said any future meetings between Keilyn and Teh be done from 7 until 8pm for 30 minutes only while being supervised by Anna in Thailand.
In addition to making her police report at Sentul, Anna was told by the police that Teh had in fact made a police report indicating that Keilyn’s passport was lost a few days before April 29, the day she made her report about her kidnapping.
“She is very worried about Keilyn’s well-being because she is a toddler and should not be separated from her mother for long periods of time.
“We are imploring for anyone with any information about their whereabouts to inform the authorities so we can help find them as soon as possible,” Chen said.
The issue of smuggling children across the Malaysia-Thailand border was previously brought up in the case of Hindu mother M. Indira Gandhi, whose Muslim convert ex-husband Muhammad Riduan Abdullah had absconded to Thailand with her youngest daughter Prasana Diksa.
