Another Norwegian family beat Barnevernet by publicising their case
- Details
- Category: Norwegian child protection (Barnevernet)
- Created: Sunday, 07 May 2017 16:41
- Written by Alecomm2
Great news has arrived from Norway: parents Natasha and Eric Olsen Myra have won back their twins taken away from them immediately after birth due to the mother´s alleged mental retardation. However, the battle is not yet over as the Norwegian system is threatening the parents with 2 years of imprisonment for the abduction of their own children to Poland.
The whole story began when Natasha was 13. At that time she was growing up with her foster parents who, for the sake of higher social benefits, arranged for the following diagnosis to be written down in her medical records: “non-specified mental retardation manifested by misbehavior”. Although Natasha was fighting fit, her foster parents received significantly higher social benefits for two years on account of fraud committed by one of the doctors who was their friend.
The consequence of this falsified diagnose made with the intention to enrich the foster parents was that Natasha (24), who started living with her boyfriend Eric, was deprived of her children by Barnevernet, totally out of the blue and without any other medical check-ups or reports. It happened only 4 hours after birth when Barnevernet’s officials literally stormed into the maternity hospital and hurriedly took the new-born baby girls away from their mother, placing them in foster care.
The reason why neither the father nor the other relatives were taken into consideration was that they had refused to accept the Barnevernet’s diagnosis regarding the mother´s retardation and insisted that Natasha was normal. This fact must have been clear to everyone who could hear the mother talk in a series of reports on TV2 (having a similar reach and profile as our TV Nova) which repeatedly informed the public about the case during prime time. They also gave the floor to the doctor who had made the diagnosis for teenage Natasha. He said he had wanted to “make her life easier” at school.
Barnevernet, as usual, made no comments to the media. However, Norwegian journalists obtained information provided by the local authority mayor in Stange, who claimed that the given diagnosis had allegedly been made during pregnancy on the grounds of mental problems. But there is a little catch in it - there is no single medical record proving that the mother had been examined by someone.
Later, Barnevernet claimed during the trial that, actually, they had allegedly supervised the mother for another two serious facts - according to the former foster parents (benefit cheats), the mother was supposed to be untidy and even unable to look well enough after herself. However, the mother´s lawyer strictly refused these claims, pointing out that these are only additional reasons for taking the children away, grounded in the simple assumption that the diagnosis of mental retardation was correct although the alleged “untidiness” is in no way related to mental retardation.
There would never have been a fair trial without publicizing
TV2 started covering the case shortly before the trial which was supposed to deliver a decision on placing the baby girls, half-year-old at that time, in foster care. The mother even had two very positive expert opinion reports which strictly refused mental retardation. But Barnevernet was reluctant to acknowledge them. However, it was the media coverage and the help of the well-known lawyer Gro Hillestad Thune that enforced a fair trial for the parents. But instead of Barnevernet’s apology and the children´s immediate return, an “agreement” was concluded according to which Natasha and Erik had to be placed under supervision together with their children in a family center.
When their stay similar to participating in BigBrother was coming to an end, the parents learned that Barnevernet again intended to take their children away. It was allegedly proved that the parents were unable to raise their children, which, however, Barnevernet failed to substantiate. Therefore, the parents did not go home after the stay, but ran away with their children to Poland where they have been hiding for several months already.
An international arrest warrant for the parents has been issued upon Barnevernet´s request
According to section 261 of the Criminal Code, an international arrest warrant has been issued for the parents upon Barnevernet’s request. By leaving Norway they have allegedly refused to give their children the best possible care and abducted their own children, while Barnevernet insisted on having the children in their care. Barnevernet’s officials were so unscrupulous that they not only contacted Interpol, demanding that they find the family, but also blocked the parents´ bank accounts, cutting them off from their finances. Fortunately, there were enough people not only in Norway, but also in Poland who helped the family out financially.
What is more, last week it came to light that Barnevernet HAD FALSIFIED THE DATE until which the parents had been ordered to stay in the family center, changing it from 27th to 17th June, in order to provide its officials enough time to take the children away before the Commission ´s meeting. The fact that they had recorded the change just in pen and with the consent of the parents, as they solemnly swear, is quite beyond me. A secret recording of Barnevernet’s talks with the family made by TV2 proves that the date in question had always been 27th June.
The parents want to return to Norway in the summer
The parents have now persuasively won a 4-day trial in which they appealed against the Commission´s decision to take the children away issued in June - this time for “a lack of parental competence”. Barnevernet has even given up the possibility to appeal, claiming that the parents may now return to Norway with no fear of future persecution. TV2 captured the extreme happiness of the parents. Nevertheless, they said that they were planning to wait until the summer.
Personally, I would recommend that they should not return at all. Barnevernet’s incredible manipulations have only proved that they will never leave the family alone. So far, the criminal persecution initiated by Barnevernet has not been terminated, because the parents have abducted their own children, and their bank accounts are still frozen. Whenever Barnevernet requests investigation, the police must always deal with such a case, so claiming that both processes are independent of each other is, in my opinion, buck-passing rubbish.
It is just a way indented to further destroy the family. Barnevernet will return the children to the parents while developing every effort to take them away again, so that the children could be at least under Barnevernet’s supervision for the time when the parents are in prison. Money makes the world go round so a new opportunity is opening up to Barnevenet’s officials for bullying the parents just like in the case of Eva Michalakova, the Czech mother.
Another slap in the face for Czech advocates of Barnevernet
As I have already mentioned in the article „Australian Journalists Reveal Child Thefts in Norway (Australští novináři ukázali, jak se v Norsku kradou děti)“, this case is a huge slap in the face for Czech advocates of Barnevernet, for it shows that all those well-worn phrases proclaiming that the media coverage of Eva Michalakova’s case has her done a lot of harm are nonsense. If Natasha and Erik and tens of other parents had not publicized their stories, they would never be able to see their children again.
The case of Natasha and Eric also proves that Barnevernet’s officials, just like in Eva Michalakova’s case, indeed have the stomach to do anything, even falsify the official documents in this well-publicised affair, just to get their own way. And the best interest of the children comes last. This also applies to certain Norwegian foster parents and doctors who have the stomach to falsify medical reports. For this reason, it is crucial to conduct independent international investigations into hundreds of cases of children taken away from their parents by Barnevernet. Everything leads to the conclusion that something is rotten in the Kingdom of Norway.
Norway facing another criticism about taking Roma children
Norway likes lecturing other countries about human rights, while it has its own big problems with them. This time, the Council of Europe came with sharp criticism of Norway concerning extremely frequent use of foster care at a small local Roma community. According to the Council, 120 Roma children in Oslo between 6 and 15 years is either already in foster care or are threatened to be taken. In fact, it is around half of the Roma children living in Oslo.
The frost comes from Barnevernet
The Council of Europe´s report says that many Roma women in Norway no longer have the courage to even give a birth in hospital because they fear their child would be taken away. There are cases not only from the Roma community of mothers trying to commit suicide after their children have been taken away immediately after they gave a birth. Is the situation of many Romas in Norway, respectively in Oslo, so unbearable and worse than elsewhere that there is no other better solution than taking these children?
From the Czech point of view, it may seem that the practices of Barnevernet are known since the end of last year. But we can find public criticism of Barnevernet even much earlier. To recap, this is not the first time the Norwegian government has been criticized by international organizations.
Already in 2005, the UN observed with concern the increasing number of children placed in foster care. No need to say that since then the situation has even worsened, as evidenced by the theme of this article.
Not to mention the fact that according to the report, children see their biological parents only twice a year and they have lack of knowledge about their own culture and language. After all, we know this very well from the case of Eva Michalakova.
Norwegian denial versus cruel reality
Barnevernet pretends that everything was according to what the Commissioner had recommended. For example, removing children from their parents must be the last extreme possibility executed when other solutions have failed. According to Muižnieks, the Norwegian authorities must also give a decision on alternative care in accordance with human rights to support Roma parents in their parenting role. Of course, reality is absolutely different.
The main reason for taking the children is in most cases a low social status of the family. But rightly confirmed by Nils Muižnieks, poverty itself cannot be the only sufficient reason for such a harsh measure. In addition, the European Council calls the Norwegian authorities to find out why so many children have been taken from families and whether such taking is in accordance with the international law.
But let’s give a chance to express an opinion of the other side. The Norwegian government states in its response that people are not registered by ethnicity and therefore cannot comment on reports that nearly half of all Roma children in Oslo have been put in foster care. Certainly, there are no statistics on taking children according to their origin. The law on childcare needs to be applied to all children regardless of their ethnic origin.
Two things can result from the above mentioned information. Either Barnevernet comes out as a cryptorasist organization through the most terrifying images or on the contrary, in the context of political correctness, it seem that Norwegians are not able to solve any problem relating specifically to the Roma community. Whatever the case, whether one of my presumptions is true or not, this means a very serious failure. With its stubborn refusal of criticism, Norway harms their own reputations and others.
norway barnevernet roma community taking children tomaszdechovsky.
