The parents of an undocumented baby had their DNA samples taken for tests required for their son’s birth registration following their arrest on Tuesday on suspicion of child neglect, Hong Kong police have revealed.
The development on Wednesday came after the Social Welfare Department on Tuesday night said that it had applied to the court for a protection order in the boy’s best interests and had drawn up a care plan.
Department Senior Social Work Officer Stephanie Lee Wing-sze said it had applied to the court for a protection order and the court had instructed that the two-month-old Danny be sent to a care home to ensure his safety.
“We need some time to speak to the relevant parties, gather information and make an assessment,” Lee said. “We’d also seek professional advice. We will then submit these to the court for the next steps regarding the implementation of welfare plans.”
Police Superintendent Billy Ching Chi-yan said that Danny had been taken to Caritas Medical Centre for a check-up, with initial results showing no obvious injuries.
Legislator Reverend Peter Koon Ho-ming said the department was expected to take over the baby’s care for at least a year. He told the South China Morning Post that the department would later consider placing Danny in foster care until his parents were deemed fit to regain custody.
Police arrested the parents on suspicion of ill-treatment of a child or child neglect after they refused a DNA test required for Danny’s birth registration following his home birth in Hong Kong.
Ching noted that the parents subsequently agreed to undergo the test, and officials were now awaiting the government laboratory’s results on the samples taken from them and Danny.
The parents were released on bail on Wednesday night and must report to police in early July.
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, Kwan Pui-sin.
Chief Immigration Officer Mickie Choi Yu-fei revealed that the government had reached out to the city’s branch of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chinese embassy in Sweden and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London regarding Lily, including her status and her care arrangements.
In the meantime, the boy was expected to stay in the care centre until he was old enough to be considered for foster care, Koon said.
The couple’s social media page showed Tsang feeding Lily juice directly from a bottle when she was a baby and taking Danny swimming at the beach.
Koon said the images suggested the couple’s parenting style was “unorthodox”, although they believed their actions were appropriate for a newborn.
Another picture showed that the couple had taken Danny to a clinic. Tsang earlier told the SCMP that they went to a family doctor but did not reveal how the consultation was arranged without a birth certificate.
Noting that Tsang and Kwan opposed vaccinations, Dr David Lam Tzit-yuen, a lawmaker representing the medical and health services sector, said social welfare authorities would have to ask the parents to consent to the injections.
He added that if the court granted the department guardianship of Danny, the government had the ultimate right to vaccinate him.
Quoting the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance, lawyer Doreen Kong Yuk-foon said parents were required to register a birth within 42 days.
The former lawmaker said those who failed to do so could face a fine of up to HK$2,000 (US$255) or six months’ imprisonment.
“Our society would not accept a child without a legal identity,” Kong said.
But she noted that the law did not explicitly place absolute responsibility on parents to provide all birth-related information.
“This is a highly unusual situation,” she said, referring to the couple’s refusal to undergo DNA testing to confirm their biological relationship with the boy.
“The ordinance should be amended to prevent such situations.”
In a reply to the SCMP, the Immigration Department said it would follow up on cases of late birth registration under its established mechanism, but did not provide prosecution figures.
“The majority complete registration soon afterwards,” a spokesman said.
The number of late registrations was 1,357 in 2023 and 831 in 2024, before falling further to 633 in 2025. Between January and April this year, 170 late registration cases were recorded.
The case came to light through the couple’s social media page, “Save Lily”, where they have campaigned for the return of their second daughter. Lily is now in the care of Swedish social services after the family moved there when Finnish authorities refused to issue her a birth certificate, ruling she was a Hong Kong resident.
Swedish police later detained the couple on suspicion of money laundering in December 2023 after discovering a large sum of cash, prompting Linkoping social services to take Lily into care.
Although the money-laundering case has since been dropped, the custody battle continues as the Swedish care order remains in place. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
