The parents of a Hong Kong baby taken into the care of welfare authorities have lost a legal bid to have their home-born baby son returned to them, with the judge arguing the father’s child-raising methods failed to consider the possible risks.
High Court Judge Queeny Au Yeung Kwai-yue on Wednesday dismissed Tsang Wai-bong’s application after he earlier filed a writ of habeas corpus regarding his son Danny.
The boy was placed in a shelter run by the Social Welfare Department after a child protection order was granted by the Juvenile Court in June.
Habeas corpus is a special court order used when someone is illegally detained. It forces the authority holding the person to bring them before a judge to prove the detention was legal. It only applies when conventional channels are unavailable or inadequate.
Tsang initiated the legal challenge last month to demand his son be taken out of the shelter.
He argued that his son has been “detained” in the shelter for unjustifiable reasons because welfare authorities could not prove that the baby was at risk under his parents’ care.