In a statement, the women, family and community development ministry said it was working with the National Registration Department (NRD) on the matter.

While the NRD will focus on the adoption process, fostering will fall under the ministry’s purview.

“By making the procedures simpler, the ministry is confident parents who want to adopt children will not take the risk of buying a child as reported in Al Jazeera.”

Many people have complained that the tedious process in adopting babies has led to childless couples turning to the illegal trade in babies.

There has been much discussion in the media on this issue in the past, with many promises made about making the process easier and faster.

Yesterday, Al Jazeera’s award-winning current affairs programme 101 East blew the lid off the sinister trade involving several rackets, involving traffickers, doctors and government officials, all profiting from vulnerable pregnant women and children.

The show discovered that babies were being traded like commodities with prices determined by the race, skin colour, gender and weight of the baby.

With babies priced between US$1,500 (RM6,600) and US$2,500 (RM11,000), this is a lucrative business.

It also found that doctors and National Registration Department (JPN) officials were falsifying birth documents.

The Malaysian Medical Association and other quarters have since asked the authorities to take action against those exposed by the Al Jazeera probe team.