Custody bid taken right to the top

The Taiwanese relatives of a Brazilian orphan battling to stay in Taiwan will today take their appeal to the Presidential Office, asking President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to give his backing to their three-year struggle.

Iruan Ergui Wu (吳憶樺), currently enrolled as a first-grader in Kaohsiung County's Chieh Ding Elementary School , has been the subject of an international custody dispute between his Brazilian grandmother and Taiwanese uncle Wu Huo-yen (吳火眼).

Iruan is set to accompany the delegation to the Presidential Office and read out a letter written by himself and addressed to Chen, Wu said.

The letter will say that Iruan is used to life in Taiwan and would like to ask the president's help because Iruan does not want to return to Brazil, Wu said.

Wu said that it is through assistance from KMT lawmaker Lin Yi-shih (林益世) that the family decided to make the trip to Taipei and take their appeal to the president.

Although Iruan didn't understand any Mandarin or Taiwanese when he arrived Kaohsiung three years ago with his father, Wu said that the boy is now fluent in both languages and has already expressed his wish to stay in Taiwan.

Wu also said that Iruan enjoys hanging out with his cousins and his classmates and that this makes him wants to stay in Taiwan even more.

Since the Presidential Office is closed today, presidential spokesman James Huang (黃志芳) said yesterday that Iruan would not meet with Chen but that staff would accept and forward Iruan's letter to the president.

Huang added that as far as he knew, Chen has not made any comments on Iruan's case since the controversy over Iruan's guardianship erupted two years ago.

Iruan was born to a Taiwanese father and a Brazilian mother who died in Brazil four years ago. Iruan's father Wu Teng-shu (吳登樹) -- a Taiwanese fishing boat captain -- died in March 2001, 11 days after he brought his son from Brazil to visit his hometown in Kaohsiung County.

Wu Huo-yen managed to obtain permanent resident status for the boy in June 2001, claiming he did so to fulfill his brother's wish that the child be raised in Taiwan and receive a Chinese-style education.

The Kaohsiung District Court last August ruled that Iruan should be returned to his grandmother, Rosa Leocadia Da Silva Ergui. Iruan's Taiwanese relatives' appeal to that ruling continues.