Podcast
Rescued kid refuses to return to parents
Updated: 2009-12-07 13:20
It was not the reunion mom and dad had hoped for.
Five years after their son went missing, police finally tracked the boy down and returned him to his parents. Yet the boy, now 15, did not want to go back.
"I don't want to go with them, I want to stay with my 'aunt'. I still have to go to school next Monday," Luo Jiajun told his birth parents, police and the media last Friday on the way back to his former village in Jiangxi province.
Five years ago, Luo got lost when selling flowers in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province.
Mistaking Luo Yanshun for his employer, he followed her and was taken to Hunan province, where her brother adopted him.
On Friday, even with his birth parents around, he continued to hold Luo Yanshun's hand.
The police and both families have respected his choice, and he will stay in Hunan.
"My wife tried to kill herself after we lost him. I spent almost all my money looking for him, now he doesn't want us," said Yi Songqing, the boy's father.
At the beginning of the six-month nationwide crackdown against child trafficking, Xiangtan police found Luo was not registered in the area and an investigation revealed his current family was not his birth family.
Luo's foster family agreed to cooperate to look for Luo's birth parents.
The couple could not help crying when they finally saw their long-lost son last Friday, yet the boy acted like a stranger and refused to call them mom and dad. Persuaded by policemen and his aunt, he finally agreed to go back with his parents.
"I know some people might say this boy is so ungrateful, yet I think we should understand his situation," Zhang Baoyan, director of volunteer organization Baby Come Home, told China Daily.
According to law, civil affairs authorities should take care of these rescued children until their parents are found.
About 30,000 to 60,000 children are reported missing every year, but it is hard to estimate how many are involved in trafficking cases, according to the Ministry of Public Security.
（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）
About the broadcaster:
Nancy Matos is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Nancy is a graduate of the Broadcast Journalism and Media program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Her journalism career in broadcast and print has taken her around the world from New York to Portugal and now Beijing. Nancy is happy to make the move to China and join the China Daily team.
