The Star/Asia News Network
Tuesday, Dec 18, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR - When his Vietnamese girlfriend gave birth to his son, contractor Ting Boon Leong married her.
That was five months ago, and today, the 38-year-old father is worried sick as his 25-year-old wife, Nguyen Thi Phuong, has taken the six-month-old baby home and is demanding RM200,000 (S$80,000) for his return.
He does not have that kind of money and has lost touch with his wife and son.
Ting met his wife at a factory in Sitiawan and had known her for two years.
At wits' end, he turned to the MCA Public Services and Complaints Department for help.
At a press conference yesterday, department head Datuk Seri Michael Chong advised local men who marry foreign women to keep their children's passports to prevent them from being "kidnapped" by their mothers.
He also cautioned Malaysian men whose children had been taken away by their foreign spouses against going to their wives' countries in search of them as many had been threatened and even beaten up.
"Since 2010, we have had 39 cases of runaway foreign wives, with 25 involving Vietnamese, and the rest from Thailand, China and Indonesia.
"Out of the 25 cases, 17 Vietnamese wives took their children when they ran away," he said, adding that only two men managed to get their children back.
In another case, Lee Ai Ling, 63, approached Chong to help find her Vietnamese daughter-in-law Nguyen Thi Tao, 26, who returned to her home country with her four-year-old son.
Lee said they left for Vietnam after an argument with her son two months ago.
Her son had paid a matchmaking agency RM25,000 for his bride.
