Portuguese authorities said today they were unlikely to hand over a baby to a British man and woman who left the country shortly after the three-month-old child was abandoned in a Portuguese street.
A local resident found the baby in a pram at a roadside near Faro airport, in the Algarve tourist area on the southern coast, on Sunday morning.
"As he was abandoned, it will be difficult to return the baby to its parents," Judge Manuel Marques told Reuters. Relatives may apply for custody, but they would have to provide credentials.
Mr Marques, who is presiding over custody proceedings, said he could not name the parents. However, local police say they had identified the parents as British citizens who had sold time-share apartments in nearby Albufeira. They left on a flight to London's Gatwick airport on Sunday morning.
Police in the southern English resort of Bournemouth said they had questioned a British man and woman following the discovery of the baby in Portugal.
Detective Sergeant Neil Claughton told reporters the two had left Bournemouth police station without being charged.
The Portuguese authorities are currently considering whether to commence extradition proceedings as a result of their investigation, he said.
In Portugal, justice ministry officials were unavailable for comment.
Pensioner Maria Ferradeira, 67, said she had brought the baby in off the street after finding him and heated up a milk bottle she had found while waiting for police to arrive.
"He was a lovely baby with blue eyes and very blonde hair... It was cold out but the baby was warm, so I reckon he had been left shortly beforehand," Mr Ferradeira said.
"I don't know how they could have abandoned him. I wouldn't mind keeping him myself," she added.
Police then took the child, who had a harelip and a cleft palate, to a local hospital for observation. Nurse Ana Heleno told police she recalled caring for a new-born baby which had the same problems.
Ms Heleno told Reutersthe mother had been discharged after the birth but not the baby, because of its problems. "Even so, she took the baby with her when she left the hospital," she said.
Hospital director Beatriz Cabrita said the baby could have corrective surgery in Portugal if courts decided he should stay in the country.
Since a routine examination found the baby to be in good health, he has been in Faro's Aboim Ascensao orphanage pending a court decision.
"The baby is fine. The solution is entirely up to the courts but I hope the matter is solved quickly," said the shelter's director Luis Vilas-Boas.
Police say a separate criminal investigation is under way and that abandonment of a child is a crime punishable under Portuguese law by up to eight years' imprisonment.