Dec 14, 2007, 2:35 GMT
Hong Kong - A nanny who cared for an adopted Korean girl given up by a senior Dutch diplomat and his family claims the girl was not treated like a normal daughter, a news report said Friday.
She was rarely in her mother's arms and always in the care of someone else, according to a former Indonesian maid quoted in South China Morning Post Friday.
The woman, who has requested not to be named, worked for the Dutch vice-consul Raymond Poeteray and his wife Meta in Hong Kong and when the family was based in Jakarta in 2002.
She said she thought it strange that the girl, now eight, was so quiet.
'They did not treat her the same way as the son. There was not the love there,' the maid told The Post.
Vice-consul Poeteray and his wife Meta adopted the girl aged four months when he was working in South Korea in 2000, at a time when the couple believed they were unable to have children.
They have since had two children of their own and last year handed the adopted girl to social workers in Hong Kong, saying the adoption had 'gone wrong.' The Poeterays have now returned to the Netherlands where the vice-consul has been asked to explain his actions to the government.
The maid's comments follow a statement issued by the couple published on Thursday in the Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf.
In their statement, the Poeterays reject all allegations, claiming she suffered from a severe fear of bonding which became so severe that medical specialists advised that she be placed in temporary care.
They said 'contrary to what has been written in the media, we do not want to get rid of our daughter. We never even considered giving her up.
'Mid-2006 certified medical specialists, social workers, the adoption organization Mothers Choice as well as the Hong Kong Social Services, recommended us to place her in foster care temporarily.'
The parents say they are still undergoing therapy, as is their daughter, but specialists were not certain the girl could ever return to her parental home.
'We continue to hope she will,' the consul writes, 'We will do our utmost to find a solution' so she 'can find happiness in her life.'
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 healthy and happy, has sparked anger and bewilderment among members of the Korean community in Hong Kong.
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