Granting identification to people with Down’s syndrome and the intellectually disabled will be facilitated from now on, an official who is in charge of IDs in Ho Chi Minh City has told Thanh Nien.

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In fact, the city’s police have issued IDs to two people with Down’s syndrome after local media in March reported several cases where the people had their applications for the personal papers refused, igniting experts’ criticism.

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Many readers in the southern city then wrote to Thanh Nien, complaining how difficult it was for their children to acquire the paper which is a must for residents in Vietnam to apply for job, rent room or travel by plane.

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Police divisions, meanwhile, argued that they just followed a government’s decree dated in 1999 stating that while all Vietnamese citizens were required to apply for an ID card after their 14th birthday, the responsibility was suspended for patients suffering from mental illness and those who have lost control of their behavior.