Iruan Ergul Wu
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Iruan Ergul Wu (born 1995) is a Brazilian-Taiwanese boy whose custody battle caused an international scandal reminiscent of that of Elián González from Cuba.
In 1998, his mother died of leukemia. While visiting his father's family in Taiwan in 2001, his father also died, victim of a boating accident. Since then, the boy stayed in Taiwan with his non-custodial family.
In 2003, his Brazilian grandmother attempted to regain him and the Taiwanese court decided he should go with her. However, his Taiwanese family refused to give him up.
They had a deadline of February 9, 2004, to send the child to Brazil, but this deadline was not met. Before the deadline, members of his Brazilian family were in Taiwan already, and his Brazilian aunt, Ergul Tavares, met with his Taiwanese aunt, Lee Shu-Hua, who seems to have grown to love the boy. They agreed to exchange the boy's education; his Taiwanese family will teach him about their language and culture through air mail.
On February 13, he returned to Brazil, where he was met by well-wishers at the airport after a 35-hour-long flight.