Response from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Washington re:Indian children taken from parents
In response to outrage over Norwegian social workers separating children from their parents for allegedly hand feeding and sleeping in the same bed as their children, the Norwegian Royal Embassy in Washington sent me this correspondence:
Thank you for your email. By contacting us you provide us with an opportunity to respond directly to the concerns of many Indians and others who have reacted to news reports from Norway.At the outset, let us assure you that the actions of Child Welfare Services in the town of Stavanger are in no way based on cultural prejudice or misunderstanding. Children in Norway, regardless of their nationality, are not removed from their parents unless conditions in the home are not sufficient to meet a child’s needs.Due to the sensitive nature of child welfare cases, Norwegian authorities are by law not allowed to comment on individual cases. This makes it difficult to respond to inaccurate news reports.Reports that the children were removed from their parents because they were fed either by spoon or by hand, or because the children had slept in their parents’ bed, are not correct. These practices are as common in Norway as they are in India. They would not constitute grounds for removing children from the care of their parents.Allow us to provide you with a link to an article published on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway reporting on yesterday’s telephone conversation between the foreign ministers of India and Norway. In their conversation, the two ministers agreed that the case should be resolved through contact between the child welfare services of the two countries in order to find a solution that is in the best interests of the children involved.The article also features a link to a press release by Child Welfare Services in Stavanger detailing the legislation governing such cases and the steps taken in this particular case. The press release is also attached to this email for your information.I hope this information will help reassure you that Norwegian authorities, in close collaboration with their Indian counterparts, are working hard to resolve this issue.Yours sincerely,Linken Nymann BerrymanCounselor and Head of Communications and Culture DepartmentRoyal Norwegian EmbassyWashington, D.C.
Emphasis added. It is difficult for me to believe that the Norwegian government is telling the truth here. First, if the parents are open and want to publicly address the government’s concerns, the fact that the government needs it to be addresses in private confines disturbs me greatly. Even more disturbing, however, is the fact that the Indian and Norwegian governments, not the parents, are the ones determining the fate of these children. The parents aren’t even mentioned, or involved.
The last and most compelling reason not to believe this letter is that it was sent to me this morning, and as of this morning, this information is demonstrably inaccurate. The children have been sent to live with their Uncle: they are still not allowed to live with their parents because of what Norway has deemed an “emotional disconnect” (due process appears to go out the window when dealing with Barnevarne, Norway’s version of CPS, or the parents might have been able to fight it). It appears the parents have at least been ‘granted’ visitation rights (the idea that a government can ‘grant’ you the ability to see your own children is so horrendously dystopian I don’t know how to deal with it) so that’s a vast improvement over the “you can only see your children for two hours a year” that Barnevarne tried to pull.
