Maja

Slovak and Portuguese wife. During a difficult divorce in court, he stated that if he does not get the children, then in that case he gives consent for the social service to place the children in foster care. The mother did receive no children into her care during the long court hearing. By a court decision in 2011, both children, who were 4 and 9 years old at the time, were placed in foster care. The mother sought help from the Slovak and Portuguese embassies and also contacted the CIPC. She didn’t get help anywhere. She had contacts for a while, but gradually there were fewer and fewer. She last met her children in 2012. She can only send them a postcard once a year.

After a while, a new man, a friend, came into her life. He was her support and so the relationship deepened and they became partners. She and her partner were expecting a baby. During her pregnancy, she was followed and monitored by the social service. Partner, the child’s father is British. They were looking forward to the baby. He was sure that they had nothing to worry about, they were safe. A beautiful day came and a baby girl was born. In the maternity ward, the social service explained to both parents that it would be in the best interest for the child if they went to live in the center for a few weeks (they could not escape, they were supervised). They must agree, so they moved to the center. Everything was fine. They gave the mother medicine to prevent her from producing milk. (This is to prevent emotional connection).

The days went by. The parents waited for the day when they could go home with the little princess. Unfortunately, nothing like that happened. The baby was just 3 weeks old. The parents received a summons to a court hearing. At that moment, the child was transferred to the foster parents. The court informed the parents that they can not raise the child, as 2 children had been taken from the mother in the past. In that moment we contacted the CIPC, the embassy in London. The father asked a baby for his care, the father’s parents asked for upbringing of the baby, but the social service refused. They pointed out the inappropriate behavior of the grandfather 20 years ago.

Relatives from the mother’s side asked Slovakia for help. Here the social service for Slovakia gave a positive evaluation. English social service during the trial, when the court allowed a trip to Slovakia to investigate the situation of the Slovak family. At that moment, we were writing several emails about whether it is at all possible for the English social service to carry out investigations outside its own country. We have received an answer from the Commissioner for Children that it is not within their competence. Only, in exceptional cases, after sending applications to the Ministry of Justice and their approval. We had the document translated and sent to court. The court refused to travel to Slovakia. Subsequently, the social service carried out an unauthorized investigation by telephone with the support of the CIPC. Investigation of family relatives through a telephone conversation. They were asked a lot of questions and the inquiry was not agreed in advance. The whole conversation lasted hours. Family relatives did not go through this investigation. The request was denied.

The parents had contact with their daughter on the beginning (what lasted 1,5 years) 2 x in a week for 1,5 hours. In September 2018, all contacts were rejected. They never saw their prince again.

Author: Alica