YANGON- Healthcare officials from Nay Pyi Taw and Bago Region will be going to Rakhine State to issue birth certificates, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports.

The Union Minister of Health and Sports met with those that will be visiting Rakhine State at the Yangon General Hospital on December 7th and gave instructions.

UNICEF reported that in Myanmar, there were over one million children who have no birth certificates. Moreover, those children were trapped in a cycle of child labour, forced recruitment into armed groups as well as trafficked as brides.

In Myanmar, 1.6 million children are now living without birth certificates. Those are mostly the children of migrants and are not living together with their parents.

Children from places such as Yangon Region have birth certificates but children living in the far-flung villages do not have access to their rightful birth certificates, according to UNICEF.

Therefore, UNICEF together with the government, carried out the birth registration and certification project since the beginning of January 2013 with funding from the European Union.

With technical support from UNICEF, the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population, Ministry of Health and Sports and Ministry of Home Affairs are now implementing the National Level Birth Registration and Certification project.

The government is now also amending the Child Law which was enacted at the time of the State Law and Order Restoration Council in 1993.