Unjustified removal of children from their parents in Norway

12.9.2018

Question for written answer P-004624-18
to the Commission
Rule 130
Ilhan Kyuchyuk (ALDE)

In Norway, a number of families are facing radical measures introduced by the ‘Barnevernet’ social services. This institution works in such a way that in 2015 it was compared to the Nazi ‘Lebensborn’ organisation by the President of the Czech Republic. Since its establishment in 1992, it has already been convicted four times for human rights violations by the Strasbourg court.

One of the many examples of Barnevernet’s victims in Norway is a Bulgarian woman named Cvetelina Oland, who has not seen her two children since she separated from her husband. After she separated from him, her children were taken away from her. She is not allowed to even go to her son's and daughter's schools. She is not allowed to call them if they do not call her. She is currently prohibited from seeing them until January 2019, because, according to the services, the children are too attached to her and she can easily manipulate them.

Unfortunately, she is not the only victim. Just in 2015, Barnevernet removed more than 1 600 children from their parents without carrying out prior talks with them.

1. Can the Commission say whether it is familiar with the work of the ‘Barnevernet’ social services?2. What measures can the Commission propose to prevent the unjustified separation of mothers from their children in Norway and to protect its European citizens?