site.bta2,000 Children at Risk Removed from Home Since January 2019, None Sent to Norway

104 POLITICS - CHILD CARE - MEASURES

2,000 Children at Risk Removed from Their 
Parents Since January 2019, None Was Sent to Norway - 
Head of Child Care Department


Sofia, October 14 (BTA) - Just over 3,000 children were removed into care in 2018 including 1,058 who were abandoned, the head of the Child Protection Department of the Social Assistance Agency, Emil Georgiev, told the Bulgarian National Radio on Sunday. The like number is slightly over 2,000 for the period between January and August 2019. None of these children was sent to Norway, he said responding to rumours about children being removed into care to be sent to foster parents in Norway.

The rumour caused a scare in Rome neighbourhoods in parts of the country sending frantic parents running to schools to collect their children to keep them from getting removed into care and sent to Norway. The authorities have ever since been trying to dispel the rumours. The government said that they have been aware of a month-long campaign culminating in the "Norway" scare and that they know who was behind it: internal and external factors, including church figures and political parties with a loud position against a contemplated child protection strategy. The government did not mention the culprits by name. 

Georgiev said that when a child is believed to be at risk and is taken away from their parents, they are placed with relatives, people who are close to the family, a foster family or a specialized institution. 

He explained that in no case was the child removed into care just like that and without reasons. "You cannot just go in a family and take the children. We don't do this and we cannot do it. It is against the law. And no children are sent to Norway. There are children for whom international adoption is allowed and there is a special procedure for that which is handled by the Justice Ministry. When such a child is adopted by a family in Norway, it goes there but we don't remove children into care and send to Norway," Emil Georgiev said.

He said that when rumours concerning child care reach the parents, they should contact the specialized services to ask any questions they may have. 

He says that the child care system works on the basis of alerts for a child at risk. The authorities can also step in on the basis of press reports or as a result of their work with families. The social workers are required to look into all alerts and collect information from all possible sources: parents, teachers, family doctor, police, local authorities, in order to decide whether there really is a problem. The first thing the social workers do is try to help the family deal with the issue themselves. Removing a child from his or her biological family is an extreme step and it never the decision of a single person. If a child is to be removed from the biological family, the first option is to place them with family members or other close persons. Such placement is appealable in court. 

Georgiev was adamant that the contemplated child protection strategy, which the government prepared but then called off amid protests from parents and various organizations, and the church, did not make easier the removal of a child into care or allowing adoption. LN/
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