The case of Bodnariu family, whose five children have been seized by the Norwegian child body echoed around the world during the weekend.
A global protest was announced on Facebook for Saturday, April 16th, by a support group “Norway Return the children to Bodnariu Family”. The anti-Barnevernet (Norwegian Child Welfare Service) protests were taking place in several cities in 21 countries: 15 cities in Romania, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, UK, USA, Canada, Hawaii, New Zealand, Gândul reported.
In Cluj-Napoca, central Romania, over 3,000 people took to the streets downtown the city in a support meeting to the Bodnarius, asking for the Norwegian authorities to allow the family’s reunion and for the Romanian authorities to involve more to solve this case.
People also rallied a protest against Norway’s child welfare service for aggressively taking children from their parents in Oslo, Norway on April 16. Demonstration campaigners filled up a square in downtown Oslo on Saturday as part of global protests against Norway’s child welfare service for aggressively taking children from their parents, many of them of foreign origins.
“Norway’s widely regarded as one of the world’s most progressive societies, yet it’s at the centre of an international storm over its child protection policies. Campaigners accuse its social workers of removing children – some from immigrant backgrounds – from their parents without justification, and permanently erasing family bonds. Tim Whewell meets parents who say they’ve lost their children because of misunderstood remarks or “insufficient eye contact” – and Norwegian professionals who call the system monstrous and dysfunctional. Is a service designed to put children first now out of control?”, BBC also reported several days ago.
On the other hand, Norway reacted on Friday to the Romanian media on this topic. Solveig Horne, the Norwegian minister of Children and Equality and Elisabeth Aspaker, the minister for EU affairs stated that Bodnariu case represents “an international campaign against Norway”, two Norwegian ministers say, while stressing that the national leaders’ pressured, which lead to real campaigns on the child protection cases, are not considered by the Norwegian authorities in an individual child protection case.
If Norway cares about its own image, it would return the children to their God-given parents, and stop the nonsense going on within its borders. It would stop #Barnevernet from terrorizing families and immediately investigate the allegations. But if it truly cares about its image and its citizens, well, that remains to be seen. The Bodnariu children have been confiscated and removed from their homes just like the Nazi did with the Jews not that long ago. Such atrocities against human rights should be punishable to the maximum extent.