The custody of a Hong Kong couple’s four-year-old daughter remains in the balance after a Swedish court threw out their attempted appeal against the local social welfare administration’s application to transfer her legal guardianship to a foster family.
The Swedish Social Welfare Committee said in a report dated June 3 that the child, Lily, had to be protected from a “rootless and insecure existence” under the care of her biological parents Tsang Wai-bong and Kwan Pui-sin, according to documents obtained by the South China Morning Post.
The committee also said it had applied to the local court to appoint the girl’s foster parents, whom she had lived with since May 2024, as her “specially appointed legal guardians”.
“Lily has the right to grow up in a home where daily life is characterised by warmth, routines, predictability and safety, and where she feels secure and content every day,” it said.
“The parents have so far shown neither receptivity nor insight regarding their daughter’s best interests, which is why the assessment for continued care remains.”
Amid a series of ill-fated attempts to regain custody of the child in Sweden in recent years, Hongkongers Tsang and Kwan expressed distress over losing their daughter and started a social media page, “Save Lily”, where they uploaded family photos and documents to campaign for her return.
More recently, the Swedish court rejected the couple’s legal challenge against the welfare committee’s application on June 10, saying social welfare reviews were not subject to judicial challenges and that the parents would have to wait for a formal decision by authorities before they could take legal action.
Tsang told the SCMP that he was dismayed that the Swedish court “did not even allow us the opportunity to challenge its irrationality”.
Lily was born at the couple’s home in Finland in October 2021. She was their second child. Their eldest daughter, who was also born at home, died at the age of one month in 2019.
Finnish authorities declined to register Lily’s birth because her parents’ permanent address was in Hong Kong. The couple were also wanted for alleged negligence that led to their first daughter’s death.
The family later moved to Sweden, where the couple were arrested on suspicion of money laundering and Lily was placed in the care of social welfare authorities in December 2023.
Although the money laundering case was later dropped, the dispute over Lily’s care continued.
After returning to Hong Kong, the couple had another home birth and welcomed a baby boy, Danny, earlier this year. But they failed to register the child with the city’s Birth Registry after refusing to submit a DNA test as proof of their relationship.
It was not until they were arrested on suspicion of child neglect earlier this month that they agreed to a DNA test to complete Danny’s birth registration.
The couple were released on bail, but Danny, who is now about three months’ old, was placed under the care of the Social Welfare Department. Whether Tsang and Kwan can regain custody of the boy will depend on further assessment of their parenting capabilities by social workers and on the Hong Kong court’s decision.
On Monday, Tsang said he and Kwan, under the supervision of government social workers, brought Danny to a Department of Health maternal and child health centre for a medical examination, which found no irregularities in the boy’s health.
The court would hear their case late this month, he added. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
