as such by the thorough procedures set out in Draft Regulation 9(1). A court order, as set out in Draft Regulation 9(1), requires extensive investigation by the social worker – and this acts as a safeguard to ensure ‘foundling’ children are truly those who have been abandoned or orphaned. The SCCT recommends that Draft Regulation 9 should make no mention of the nationality of the parents concerned. 6. Late Registration of Birth The Draft Regulations set out procedures for applying to a Late Registration of Birth. Through our daily work with clients attempting to register the birth of their children, we have encountered several barriers to Late Registration of Birth including:  Verification of the foreign parents’ permits. The Department of Home Affairs verifies asylum, refugee and temporary residence permits held by parents before they can register the birth of foreign children. In our experience, the verification of asylum and refugee permits can take up to more than a year as asylum and refugee permits are sent to Refugee Reception Offices for verification. In some cases some people had to wait for up to two years for verification and ultimate birth registration for their children. The SCCT therefore recommends that the Department of Home Affairs undertake to expedite all verifications of asylum, refugee and temporary residence permits within the period time of allotted to register births and specify timeframes within the Regulations for this process.  Late birth registration interviews. The Late Registration of Birth application procedure currently requires the parents to be interviewed by the Department of Home affairs. These interviews can take months, or years, to be scheduled and occur. This causes prejudice to the children in that they remain without birth certificates for extended periods of time and cannot be joined to parent’s refugee file or asylum file without a birth certificate. The SCCT recommends that the Regulations set out a timeframe within which such interviews must take place. The SCCT recommends that the 30 day rule is relaxed to allow birth registration of children to take place without extra requirements which is in the best interest of the child.  Re-issuance of hand written birth certificates. Currently the Department of Home Affairs does not re-issue lost foreign birth certificate unless one has an old copy of the lost birth 8