Asia-Pacific News
Dutch diplomat who gave up adopted Korean girl, 7, returns home
Dec 13, 2007, 2:04 GMT
Hong Kong - A Dutch diplomat based in Hong Kong who sparked outrage by giving up a 7-year-old Korean girl he adopted with his wife as a baby was Thursday reportedly on his way home.
Vice-consul Raymond Poeteray was due to leave Hong Kong Thursday for the Netherlands and will be asked to explain his actions to the government during his stay, the South China Morning Post reported.
Poeteray and his wife, Meta, adopted the 4-month-old when he was working in South Korea in 2000, at a time when Mrs Poeteray believed she was unable to have children.
They have since had two children of their own and last year handed over the adopted girl to social workers in Hong Kong, saying the adoption had 'gone wrong.'
Among the reasons reportedly cited by the couple for giving up the girl, according to South Korean consulate sources, was that she was unable to adapt to Dutch culture and did not enjoy their food.
Social workers and the Korean community in Hong Kong are now trying to find a new home for the girl, who is in the care of an expatriate foster family in the former British colony.
The girl, who speaks English and Cantonese but not Korean, is neither a citizen of her adoptive parents' home country nor a Hong Kong resident, so her future in the territory is uncertain.
The plight of the girl, described by the newspaper as otherwise happy and healthy, has sparked anger and bewilderment among members of the Korean community in Hong Kong.
In an interview at the weekend, Poeteray told a Hong Kong newspaper that his family was struggling to cope with their decision and said that his wife was undergoing therapy after giving up the adopted daughter last year.
'It's just a very terrible trauma that everyone's experiencing,' he was quoted as saying. 'It is something we have to deal with.'
A Dutch consulate source quoted in Thursday's South China Morning Post said: 'Our ministry of foreign affairs says nothing illegal has happened. It is a private matter, but as a good employer we will assist in this matter in the interests of the child.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Grotesque is the word that comes to mind. What kind of people go out of their way to f*** up an orphan???
It was up to them to raise her. But they neglected her. I think the baby sitter spent more time with her then them monsters.
There is much more to this whole story than any of you care to hear about. I've heard their story first hand from the family themselves, and the newspapers hardly cover the hardships the Poeteray's went through with Jade. You say that they make you sick, well all of you make me sick.
update: last month, jade was fully adopted by a family in hong kong -- and reportedly happy, healthy and doing well in a hong kong school.
i don't care how difficult her situation was for the dutch couple. your child is your child -- blood or adopted. if your natural child becomes ill, disabled or has a difficult problem, you don't give up half-way through treatment and abandon him/her in a foreign country, and then move to the other side of the world.
what we've heard here is that jade was never treated as part of the family. they never gave her dutch citizenship, after SEVEN YEARS. the fact that the father worked in the consulate makes it even weirder. they claimed the issue 'slipped their mind.' what parent makes an important legal document 'slip their mind' for 7 years?
jade reportedly didn't speak dutch natively, though she should have, given she was adopted as an infant. the nanny says the mother never held her, and referred to the other two birth children as the 'real' children. the fact that jade was fluent in cantonese -- not an easy dialect -- when nobody else in her family was, makes me think she was 'raised' by the nanny or maid.
and the parents blame the little girl for having bonding issues? who wouldn't under those circumstances?
i'm proud of hong kong for taking good care of her, even though she's not from here, and was just 'dropped off' by a diplomat.
page: 1
Dutch Tolerance?Dec 14th, 2007 - 00:42:33
Illustrates the lack of it. They lecture their minorities to accept diversity but when in comes to themselfs, another story.
Sickening story. I bet the government will distract the debate at home by lambastingtheir immigrate community.
Reminds me of Ann Frank story, they never learn.
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