[SingViet]

I NEVER SUSPECTED SHE WASN'T MINE
S'pore cabby's application to get student pass for Vietnam-born daughter rejected. DNA test to prove paternity shows he's not the 8-year-old's father
WHEN his marriage to a Vietnamese woman broke down, he brought his daughter back to Singapore.
By Veena Bharwani

05 March 2008
WHEN his marriage to a Vietnamese woman broke down, he brought his daughter back to Singapore. He loved the girl, now 8, like any father would.
He tried to get a student pass for her, a process that involved spending thousands of dollars, resulted in a lot of frustration and has ended in heartbreak.

After a DNA test, he found out that he is not the girl's biological father.
The girl holds a Vietnamese passport and has been here for about nine months on a social visit pass that needs to be extended every two to four weeks.

Mr Lim (not his real name) went to Vietnam in 1997 to do business there.
We are not identifying him or the girl because she is not aware of the DNA test result.

TRADITIONAL CEREMONY

In 1998, he said he married a local woman in a traditional ceremony in Vietnam, and a year later the girl was born.

'We were like any loving family then,' said Mr Lim, who is in his 50s.

They lived together in Ho Chi Minh City till 2006, when everything went wrong.

The restaurant he was managing went bust, and his marriage, which had been unhappy for a while, broke down.

His wife left him for another man.

He came back to Singapore in September that year, leaving the girl with her mother.

But in May last year, the mother said she was not able to look after the girl any more.

And he brought her here, to live with him and his mother in a flat in the north-east.

Mr Lim started working as a taxi driver, earning about $2,000 a month.

He placed the girl in a student care centre during the day and gave her Chinese tuition lessons.

CAN'T SPEAK CHINESE

'She did not speak a word of Chinese and I wanted to prepare her for local school,' he said.

He figured that though his daughter was a foreigner, it wouldn't be difficult for her to get a student pass and attend primary school here.

'I thought that since I'm Singaporean, it should not be too hard for my daughter to get a student pass if I submit all the necessary documents.'

But the documents, such as her birth certificate, were in Vietnamese and he had to pay to get them translated. Her birth certificate names him as her father.

There were other problems. For instance, he was not legally married to the girl's mother, as he said they had only a customary marriage.

After his applications were rejected, he sought help from several MPs, but could not make any headway.

He said he has spent more than $2,000 and made numerous trips to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to pursue the matter.

Finally, he said he was asked to go for a DNA test in January, for more proof that the girl was biologically related to him.

'I thought it was silly.

'But although it was expensive, I went along with it as I really wanted this to be over,' he said.

He paid close to $1,000 for the test.

It was then that Mr Lim got the biggest shock of his life: The girl is not his biological daughter.

Said Mr Lim: 'Not once did I suspect she was not mine. I love her very much.

ATTACHED SINCE BIRTH

'We've been attached ever since she was born. I brought her to Singapore and supported her when her mother abandoned her.

'I cannot believe it. All this while I've loved her as my own. I've been betrayed so badly by her mother.'

Even when his wife had an affair, he did not once think his daughter was not his.

When he was handed the test results, he recalls being in shock: 'I just couldn't digest the news.

'I drove my taxi to the East Coast and spent the whole day in a daze there.

'I kept thinking of the day she was born and how I rushed my wife to the hospital and took care of her and the baby.'

In his anger, he called his ex-wife and demanded an explanation.

'She said perhaps the hospital made a mistake,' he said.

It is now unclear if the girl will be allowed to remain in Singapore, let alone go to school here.

When asked about the case, ICA said it could not comment, citing confidentiality as the reason.

ICA issued about 68,400 student passes to foreigners last year.

In an e-mail reply to The New Paper, an ICA spokesman said: 'ICA welcomes bona fide foreigners to study, work or stay in Singapore.

'At the same time, applications for immigration facilities will have to meet the entry criteria and abide by the relevant guidelines and policies before they can be approved.

'Each application is carefully assessed on its own merits.'

Mr Lim says he won't give up trying to keep the girl in Singapore.

'I'll continue to re-appeal and find out if there are other options.'

He said he would look into adopting her legally, with the help of his mother and three married brothers.

'I will do anything to keep her with me and secure her future.

'Whatever the test says, she is my daughter.'

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Girl may be sent back to Vietnam orphanage

LAWYERS contacted by The New Paper say that the girl's options to remain in Singapore under Mr Lim's care are limited.

Said lawyer Amolat Singh: 'If the man were married, he could arrange to adopt the girl with his wife.

'However, since he is single, it is unlikely he will be allowed to adopt her. More so since the child he is trying to adopt is a girl.'

He added that ICA is strict about such cases and as the DNA test has proven she is not his biological daughter, it is possible that she may be sent back to a Vietnamese orphanage.

Lawyer Edwin Loo of Leonard Loo & Co said another possibility would be for one of Mr Lim's relatives to adopt the girl.

'If he has relatives who can prove themselves to be worthy adoptive parents and can satisfy the criteria for adoption, then perhaps the girl can stay in Singapore,' he added.