Parents brought child back to Russian orphanage

www.bild.de
14 July 2021

She is only two years old when her mother dies. Then she was sent to a Russian orphanage. A move to distant Sweden followed with everything that went with it: a new family, a new language, a kindergarten, new friends. As soon as she got used to everything, she had to go back to Russia. Because the parents supposedly regretted the adoption.

Now a lawyer and a youth welfare office are fighting to get the little one back to Sweden. The Swedish newspaper "Dagens Nyheter" reports .

When the little one, who is repeatedly torn between two worlds, was two years old, her mother died. The father is unknown. After the mother's death in Russia, the toddler did not have a single relative. No grandma, no aunt. Nobody. However, there is an uncle in Sweden. This uncle and his wife applied for adoption. However, the couple had to be screened by the Swedish Youth Welfare Office just like all other couples willing to adopt. The case was legally complicated as there has been no adoption agreement between Sweden and Russia since 2013.

Eventually, however, the couple got the green light. In autumn 2019, the two-year-old girl was allowed to move to Sweden. She now lived with her new adoptive parents in the 14,000-inhabitant town of Tranås in southern Sweden. Not much is known about these parents, but both are said to be well off and live in a stately home in Tranås.

Kindergarten switched on the youth welfare office when the girl no longer showed up

Unfortunately there must have been problems in the small family from the beginning, as the kindergarten teachers twice expressed concern to the youth welfare office. It is not known why the educators were concerned, as the file is locked. It is known, however, that the youth welfare office initiated investigations in both May and October 2020. Both investigations were ended with no results.

After the traditional Lucia festival on December 13th, the little one no longer appeared in preschool. When the girl didn't show up after Christmas, the educators became more and more worried. Finally, they informed the youth welfare office on February 22, 2021. They looked. The harrowing truth came to light. The parents had regretted the adoption and brought the 4-year-old back to Russia.

INTERESTING TOO

"Imagine you're four years old ..."

The adoptive parents do not want to speak to the media and have so far declined all interview requests.

The 4-year-old girl is now legally represented in Sweden by lawyer Mikael Svegfors. He told the prestigious Dagens Nyheter newspaper: “They took everything from the 4-year-old girl and sent it back to the Russian orphanage from which she came. I have been working with adoption issues for 15 years. I've never been so repulsed by anything. It's a terrible situation. Imagine that you are four years old and completely helpless. "

He wants - together with the youth welfare office - to bring the child back to Sweden. Not least because the 4-year-old has been a Swedish citizen since adoption. “Of course the child has to go back to Sweden. You could take care of a nice foster family here. "

However, the Russian authorities disagree with this. You unilaterally canceled the adoption. In addition, it is now completely unclear where the child is at all. Maybe it's still in an orphanage, maybe with foster parents or adoptive parents.

No crime

The police and public prosecutor's office have also dealt with the case. However, it was not possible to bring charges against the parents as there is no suitable law for this exceptional situation. Angelica Freeman, senior employee in the responsible youth welfare office, told Dagens Nyheter: “If you had abandoned the child on a street in Sweden, it would have been a criminal offense. But it is not a crime to bring a child to a children's home. "

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