Hong Kong social welfare authorities are expected to take over the care of an undocumented baby for at least a year and may arrange foster care after his parents were arrested over suspected child neglect, a lawmaker has revealed.
Legislator Reverend Peter Koon Ho-ming told the South China Morning Post that the Social Welfare Department would later consider placing two-month-old Danny in foster care until his parents were deemed fit to regain custody.
Koon disclosed the plan after the department said on Tuesday night that it had applied to the court for a protection order in the boy’s best interests and had drawn up a care plan.
Police arrested the parents the same day on suspicion of ill-treatment or child neglect after they refused a DNA test required for Danny’s birth registration. He was born at home in Hong Kong.
Koon said the department would be “very careful” in assessing the couple, who have a troubled parenting history. Swedish welfare authorities removed their then two-year-old, Finland-born daughter Lily from their care in late 2023.
Their first daughter died in Finland in 2019 at the age of one month. Both girls were born via home delivery in Finland, according to the parents, Tsang Wai-bong, a 43-year-old former physiotherapist, and his partner, Ms Kwan.