VARIOUS: Hong Kong authorities seek comfort and a home for adopted 8-year old girl returned by Dutch parents

Record ID: 476352

  • Title: VARIOUS: Hong Kong authorities seek comfort and a home for adopted 8-year old girl returned by Dutch parents
  • Date: 15th December 2007
  • Summary: (EU) UTRECHT, NETHERLANDS (DECEMBER 13, 2007) (REUTERS) PETER BENDERS, DIRECTOR OF ADOPTION SERVICES FOUNDATION, WALKING PAST BY CHRISTMAS TREE IN HIS OFFICE (SOUNDBITE) (English) PETER BENDERS, DIRECTOR OF ADOPTION SERVICES FOUNDATION, SAYING: "The parents themselves have declared they haven't given up the child."
  • Embargoed: 30th December 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Social Services / Welfare
  • Reuters ID: LVABJG16F841KEG6UF19WQ90JNX8
  • Story Text: An eight-year-old Korean girl remains in foster care in Hong Kong as authorities try to find her a new home after her parents in the Netherlands sent her away.
    Hong Kong authorities and social workers are seeking to provide a new home for a South Korean girl whose adoptive parents gave her up to authorities citing "bonding difficulties."
    Controversy continues to surround the case of the eight-year old girl adopted by Dutch diplomats, Raymond and Meta Poeteray. Hong Kong's leading English-language newspaper South China Morning Post has been running front page headline stories about the case nearly every day this week, and has published a photograph of the adoptive parents.
    South Korean dailies have also been following the case, while a Dutch newspaper on Thursday (December 13) showed a picture of the girl and ran an editorial letter written by the adoptive father.
    The South Korean girl, Jade, is currently in foster care in Hong Kong, where she was handed over to social service authorities last May.
    The couple adopted Jade when she was four months old while they were based in South Korea, believing they could not have children. The wife later gave birth to two children, according to the South China Morning Post.
    The girl speaks English and Cantonese, and according to reports, feels most at home in Hong Kong.
    Fernando Cheung, a Hong Kong legislator with ties to the Social Services department, said Jade was "a normal healthy girl" who had been well cared for.
    Susan So, director of the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children, said the most important thing is for social workers to find a stable environment for the child. They are reportedly seeking to find a Hong Kong family with Korean roots.
    As a crossroads between East and West, Hong Kong is a city where it is not uncommon to find families made up of western parents and adopted Chinese children. Social workers say it is rare to find cases that do not work out, as parents go through a long process to adopt children and understand the deep commitment they are making to a child when they take them in.
    Some social workers question the motive of the Dutch parents in this particular case, wondering whether there is something else which may have caused problems in the home. Susan So pointed out, however, that adoption poses special challenges. "As adoptive parents you really don't know the child's temperament," she said.
    The Dutch consulate in Hong Kong told the south China Morning Post that it is supporting the diplomats.
    According to a letter published in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf on Thursday, medical experts diagnosed the girl suffered from serious bonding problems. The parents said intensive family therapy had not helped and the situation began to take a toll on the entire family. But Peter Benders, director of the Adoption Services Association, said the family has not given up the child.
    Benders said Dutch law prohibits the return of adopted children.
    ENDS.
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