Romanian kids taken hostage by European Child Protection Services

'A sad Christmas in Santa's country'. It's not a fairy tale, but title of an article published today in our local press - the tragic story of a Romanian family destroyed by the Child Protection Service in Finland. Two children, Mihai (11) and Maria (10) were taken from their mother because this is what their abusive father asked and the CPS were happy to oblige.

It is not even a singular story, an isolated incident, there are dozens of Romanian children taken hostage in various state institutions across Northern European countries. Some of these cases have received extensive media coverage, but nothing seems to impress the all-mighty local CPS, not even street protests or diplomatic actions.

The case of the Romanian doctor Camelia Smicală is one of the most publicized stories of CPS abuse. Her nightmare started in 2005 when she married a Finnish man, who, soon enough, turned out to be an alcoholic and abusive husband. As in other countless stories, she thought maybe a child would make a difference. It did not. They went on to have a second child, the result of what the woman describes as conjugal rape. Since she had suffered severe complications with the first C-section, the Finnish doctors urged her to abort the second baby. Her husband beat her and tried to strangle her. Camelia Smicala kept the baby, a healthy girl born in 2007.

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As the marriage was beyond saving, the woman did her best to learn the language well enough to get a job as a doctor, got a divorce and was looking forward to living a normal peaceful life. Her ex filed to get custody of the kids arguing that she might take them away to her native Romania. This is an important part of the case, as this is the only reason why she was separated from the kids. There were never any allegations against her and she was allowed to keep her eldest daughter, from a previous marriage.

In retrospect, it seems her biggest mistake was trusting CPS would act within the law. She let them into her house, thinking nothing can happen since they had no legal documents or a warrant to take away the kids. But they did and took care of the paperwork later. Here is a video showing the terrifying moment the children were kidnapped by the CPS. Apparently, the video was taken by the friends she had asked to be with her on the day social services were expected to come by.

Just in case you found the video disturbing, let me just add that Camelia ended with broken ribs, but got a 6-month suspended jail sentence, as one of the social workers involved got a scratch from the fight and a mental trauma. According to Finnish justice, the incident was traumatic for the social worker, not for the mother or her children.

Naturally, the local authorities ruled it favor of the father, turning a blind eye on his history of abuse against his wife and children. We're talking about a father who tried waterboarding his son, allegedly to make the child more compliant and loving. Still, he got full custody in 2015 and the children were taken to live with their father, who, at the time, was jobless and broke. However, after a few months the same CPS that had granted him custody took the children away from him, citing imminent danger.
Obviously, the kids were not returned to their mother, but were placed in an institution. This year, social services decided to separate the kids, accusing the boy of manipulating his younger sister – as in insisting they want to go back to their mother. The girl now lives with a foster family, while the boy is still in an institution. A few months ago, he was threatened to be given an ADHD diagnostic (and the corresponding medication) if he keeps being stubborn about going home.

Their Christmas was sad. Camelia Simcala brought them gifts on their scheduled once-a-month supervised meeting, on December 22.
“My children are afraid to talk to me. The important things they whisper in my ear, afraid to be overheard”, the woman told a Romanian newspaper. Other children in the institution were allowed to visit their families for Christmas, the Romanian kids were not.
According to Finnish law, kids over the age of 12 are allowed to decide which parent they want to live with in case of a divorce. Mihai will be turning 12 next year, but the law doesn't apply to him. Children in an institution don't get to choose.

A billion Euros business

Most family protection cases involve parents fighting alone for justice. In this case, Camelia Simcala is not alone. This year there were protests in several Romanian cities, including one in front of the Finnish Embassy in Bucharest. Protests were held across Germany, mainly organized by the local Christian Orthodox church. The case was even presented at the European Parliament by a Romanian MP. The Finnish ambassador was summoned by the Foreign Ministry, but declined to get involved, arguing the children have Finnish citizenship so Romanian authorities cannot interfere.

Why is it that no one can or wants to do anything in this case? According to the mother, the answer is simple – Child Protection is big business in Finland, a billion Euros business, involving state and private institutions. According to a Finnish human rights organization, these institutions get anywhere between 80.000-100.000 Euros a year for every child in their care. Foster families get 30.000 euros a year, social workers get a bonus for reaching their targets, that is the number of children taken away from their families. There are between 20-25.000 children in various Finnish Child Protection institutions. Another 100.000 kids are monitored by the same CPS. This in a country of only 5.4 million people.

One if the most important private institutions involved in this business is MedOne-Attedo, a Swedish transnational company, with branches in Finland, Denmark and Norway. You might have noticed the name starting with 'Med' – that's because big medical companies are behind these child protection schemes, together with investment funds – a business just like any other.

With a suspended sentence in her file, Camelia Simcala is now risking her freedom by talking to the press, but she says she doesn't have a choice. In a interview earlier this year, she stated that in her opinion this is a giant experiment aimed at destroying families and creating well-trained citizens. She went as far as to compare the workings of the Finnish CPS with the notorious Nazi-era Lebensborn program, under which children of mixed origins were taken into orphanages to be raised as dedicated Nazi soldiers.
The Finnish CPS has a dark past, full of violence, sexual abuse, child labor. Last year, Juha Rehula, the minister of family affairs, apologized for the terrible suffering of the children who were in the system between the 1950s and the 1980s. As for the current state of the CPS, the minister promised they'll be given more money. Not a word about the abuse going on at present.

A Norwegian saga

A similar story of abuse involving Romanian children took place in Norway in 2015. Again with a mixed family, a Romanian father, Marius Bodnariu, and his Norwegian wife, Ruth. A happy family, with five children who were targeted primarily because they are a very religious family. One of the kids was overheard by a teacher saying that 'God punishes sin', which the CPS translated as religious indoctrination. Also, when questioned, one of the girls said sometimes their father spanks them. That was in October 2015. By December, the Bodnarius, both hard-working people involved in local charities and educational programs, lost their parental rights and their five children, including a five-months old baby were put up for adoption.

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It took many months of protests, again across Europe, diplomatic actions, several NGOs involved in their defense, but the parents won their fight. One year ago they got their children back and, obviously, they moved to Romania, where last spring their sixth child was born. They remain involved in helping other Romanian families whose children have been taken away in countries like Finland, Norway, Denmark or Sweden.
Ironically, this family's saga has helped others to avoid the same suffering. People understood that nobody's safe when dealing with the Barnevernet, the Norwegian CPS. Romanian press wrote last year about a family who were about to suffer the same fate. However, when she saw the Barnevernet car in her driveway, the mother immediately called her husband who went to pick up the kids from school and they all fled the country.

I mentioned earlier Camelia Simcala's opinion that we're dealing with a system aiming to destroy families. Yes, it is about money, too, but there is also an agenda clearly aimed at creating a new society, where children belong to the state and parents are simply allowed to raise them, if they behave well and play by the rules. The Bodnariu case was met with a lot of emotion in our country, thousands of people took to the streets trying to help a family thousands of miles away. There was an impressive show of solidarity with that family. However, our most liberal opinion-makers, those paid by George Soros through his many organizations, took the opportunity to preach to the 'uneducated and primitive' Romanian public the values of Western democracy, embodied in that particular case by the Barnevernet.
This only proves what other stories written under #familyprotection have stressed before – wherever you live, beware of Child Protection Serivces – they are not your friends!