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Taiwan-Brazil tug-of-love ends with boy taken to birth country
Taipei, Feb 11: The tug-of-love over a Taiwanese-Brazilian orphan ended today with the eight-year-old boy being taken back to Brazil following a three-year custody fight.
Taipei, Feb 11: The tug-of-love over a Taiwanese-Brazilian orphan ended today with the eight-year-old boy being taken back to Brazil following a three-year custody fight.
Iruan Ergui Wu was to board a plane at noon to Hong Kong where he would take a transit flight to South Africa and then to his birth place Porto Alegre in Brazil, officials said today.
''He will be escorted by our representative during his journey and is expected to rejoin his grandmother Rosa Lecocadia Silva Eugui Friday,'' said an official with the Brazilian Trade Office, Brazil's de facto embassy in Taipei.
Representative Paulo A. P. Pino has been commissioned by the boy's grandmother to take him back to Brazil, which does not maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
The custody battle turned ugly Monday after police were ordered by the court to forcibly remove the boy from his uncle, Wu Huo-Yen's southern Taiwan home.
The entire episode was broadcast live by Taiwanese television which showed the teary Iruan struggling to resist his removal. The boy was subsequently handed over to the Brazilian envoy Monday night.
The custody fight started in 2001 shortly after the boy's father, a fishing boat captain, brought him to Taiwan but died two weeks later.
Iruan was born in Brazil to a Brazilian mother and his boat captain father. His mother died five years ago, and he was then taken care of by his Brazilian grandmother before the father took him to Taiwan in March 2001.
Bureau Report
''He will be escorted by our representative during his journey and is expected to rejoin his grandmother Rosa Lecocadia Silva Eugui Friday,'' said an official with the Brazilian Trade Office, Brazil's de facto embassy in Taipei.
Representative Paulo A. P. Pino has been commissioned by the boy's grandmother to take him back to Brazil, which does not maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan.
The custody battle turned ugly Monday after police were ordered by the court to forcibly remove the boy from his uncle, Wu Huo-Yen's southern Taiwan home.
The entire episode was broadcast live by Taiwanese television which showed the teary Iruan struggling to resist his removal. The boy was subsequently handed over to the Brazilian envoy Monday night.
The custody fight started in 2001 shortly after the boy's father, a fishing boat captain, brought him to Taiwan but died two weeks later.
Iruan was born in Brazil to a Brazilian mother and his boat captain father. His mother died five years ago, and he was then taken care of by his Brazilian grandmother before the father took him to Taiwan in March 2001.
Bureau Report