Mystery over rejected child
Nishika Patel and agencies
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
South Korean consulate officials are wondering why a Dutch couple who adopted a Korean baby, rejected her seven years later.
The adoptive parents, a Dutch diplomat and his wife have cited cultural shock and the girl's unwillingness to eat the food they provide as reasons for giving up the child.
South Korean consular officials noted that the - unnamed - couple said they had failed to integrate her into the family.
A Social Welfare Department spokeswoman said the girl is in foster care.
The Korean consulate spokesman said: "They now have their own children. They decided it was difficult to raise her because of cultural shock. They said she's not willing to eat their food. That's one of the reasons. It's a strange reason. She was raised from a very early age. It's a very uncommon case. It's a difficult situation for us to understand."
The couple had adopted the child at a time the diplomat was serving in Seoul.
South Korea's JoongAng Daily reported that the diplomat's wife had believed she was infertile when the couple adopted the Korean girl in 2000, but conceived after moving to Hong Kong.
The consulate spokesman said the girl has a Korean passport and is not a naturalized Dutch citizen.
He said the girl speaks English and Cantonese but not Korean.
The Hong Kong government has found a school for her.
Social work professor Wong Chack-kie, of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the experience will have an adverse impact on the child's future development.
"Their bond would obviously be strong and the child will be suffering from separation anxiety and a feeling of abandonment. There will be a long-term impact on the child's future development because at seven she is in her formative years. She may find it difficult to establish long-standing relationships in the future."
A spokeswoman for the Social Welfare Department said: "The girl is being taken care of by foster parents. We will take the best interests of the child into consideration."
A spokesman for the Netherlands consulate said it was a personal matter. "They had a very hard time with this. For the family involved it's very traumatic," he said.