Abandoned kids to be sent home

Local authorities plan to send three migrant children back to their hometown after their father abandoned them with no more than 25 yuan ($3.93) and a jumbo box of instant noodles, the director of the Shanghai Homeless Shelter said Sunday.

The children were found by their landlord two days after their father left their rented home in Pudong New Area last Monday to search for their runaway mother, the Oriental Morning Post reported Saturday. He is now in Zhengzhou, Henan Province.

The children were taken to the Shanghai Homeless Shelter, which also serves as a temporary home for abandoned children.

The father refused to return for the three children: Ran Haidong, 11, and his 9-year-old sister and 7-year-old brother, according to Zhou Zheng, the shelter's director.

"We were surprised when the father said he didn't want to talk to the children when we called him. The shelter is just a temporary place for children. We will contact Chongqing authorities tomorrow, and try to get the children enrolled in school in their hometown as early as possible," Zhou told the Global Times.

Ran Haidong said that his father talked about his plan hours before he left. "He told me at lunch that he would leave to find our mom. He said that we could look for him in Chongqing after we grew up," the boy said, burying his face in his arms.

The children's parents worked in a brickyard in Pudong after the family moved from Zhejiang Province early this year. Their mother had a big fight with their father several days before she ran away. "My dad said that my mom ran off with a guy from work. He said he's going to find her," Ran told the Global Times.

He said he didn't make a fuss before his father left because he had hoped that his mother would be found soon.

Ran said that he cried when he woke up in the morning to find 25 yuan on the table. The father told them to find a police car when they ran out of food.

The shelter called the mother several times, but her mobile phone was no longer working, said Wei Qingchun, the head of the juvenile department of the Shanghai Homeless Shelter.

"Although the father picked up our call, he said he's in Zhengzhou, and didn't want to return for the kids because he believed that they would be taken care of," Wei told the Global Times.

The father told Wei that he didn't need to worry because he knew authorities would not leave the children on the street, according to a report by Shanghai Television Station, which recorded the call. "I wouldn't be able to survive if I brought the three children with me," he said.

Parents in China don't face serious punishment for abandoning their children, said Wan Wenzhi, lawyer specializing in guardianship from Shanghai Haiyao Law Firm. "Unlike in the West, parents will not be sent to prison or fined for abandoning their children, unless the children end up dead or on the streets. Although there are laws that allow the children to be taken away from their parents, they aren't often used," he told the Global Times.

There haven't been many parents who have refused to return for their children after they end up in the shelter. "We have only seen two cases like this over the last two years," Wei said.

In July, a mother refused to return for her 10-year-old son. The shelter is still trying to get the mother to take the boy back. The shelter is only allowed to house a homeless person for 10 days, but it makes an exception for children, Wei said.

If the parents don't return in time, Chongqing authorities will take charge of the children and find relatives or friends who can take care of them temporarily.

"I hope to go back to Chongqing," Ran said. "An old friend of my father's lives there."