Seven children are taken into care by the youth welfare office
According to the police, around 250 people demonstrated on Saturday afternoon on Hannah-Arendt-Platz directly opposite the Lower Saxony state parliament for a Christian Romanian family from Walsrode. The reason: The responsible youth welfare office has taken care of all seven of the family’s children and some of them have placed them separately in foster families. The case has already made waves across the region – and was also interpreted by the demonstrators as a blow by an authority against a family from Romania. The protest rally was organized by the Romanian Pentecostal church Biserica Romana Filadelfia in Hanover, to which the family apparently belongs.
Romanian politicians are said to have been involved
“Stop Jugendamt” is written on protest banners in the colors of the German flag, “Children belong to the family” can be read on posters primed with the federal eagle. Some of the posters also show the family themselves, girls in floral dresses or tank tops, boys in blue shirts or white T-shirts, the parents, a baby – apparently a picture from happy days. Romanian members from Pentecostal congregations from all over Germany came as supporters, and even representatives from Romanian Pentecostal congregations from Paris and Rome gave speeches at the protest rally.
According to the organizers, a delegation of Romanian politicians has already tried to mediate, and the Romanian consul from Berlin is also said to be involved. According to the organizers, the family from Romania moved to Walsrode via Spain about three years ago to work there. That was also a success, the children are described as musically gifted, as consistently good students.
Son makes serious allegations
The sixteen-year-old son had apparently made such serious allegations against a school psychologist about five months ago that. Such a measure is the harshest means of a youth welfare office if it suspects a child’s welfare is at risk. The protesters declared against it that the pubescent boy only wanted to achieve more freedom for himself. It has now been proven that he was mentally and physically ill and that the allegations were made out of thin air.
The siblings, who died completely unexpectedly were taken from the family by the police, were severely traumatized, and in some cases they were badly treated in their foster families. This state of affairs has been dragging on for five months, and it will take months before a court hearing. The family now wants to return to Romania – the German state should surrender the children and let the family go, the demonstrators demand. Many Pentecostals are considered to be strictly religious, and television or radio are forbidden in some families. According to the organizers, the family itself does not want to comment publicly on the advice of their lawyer. The youth welfare office could not be reached at the weekend for an opinion.
From Jutta Rinas
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