Mr Donald Tusk
Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland
Mr Ulf Kristersson
Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sweden
For the attention of:
Ms Monika Horna-Cieślak
Polish Ombudsman for Children
Ms Juno Blom
Swedish Ombudsman for Children
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Polish and Swedish societies have witnessed tremendous injustice and insensitivity on the part of officials from both Poland and Sweden. A Polish couple, Ewa and Robert Klaman, had their four children taken from them without a proper investigation. The children were separated from both their parents and from each other.
Ładowanie formularza
When the eldest daughter, Kinga, refused to obey the rules of the family home (restricting access to smartphones and doing household chores), she asked the school superintendent to intervene. Kinga later admitted that she had lied about the situation at home. But the official machinery was set in motion. The 14-year-old was removed from her family and placed in foster care. Officials asked the parents if they would voluntarily surrender the rest of the children, but they refused. Fearing further violations of their family unity by Swedish officials, they decided to return to Poland.
The Municipality of Eksjö, on behalf of the Swedish Social Service, has requested the Polish side to hand over the remaining children of Mr and Mrs Klaman. Despite the fact that the girls have only Polish citizenship, that the parents had full parental authority when they moved to Poland and were not prohibited from leaving Sweden, and that the Polish services responsible for monitoring the family situation found no grounds for placing the children in foster care, the District Court in Nysa abruptly closed its proceedings on the grounds of lack of domestic jurisdiction and decided to immediately transfer the children to Sweden.
We call on the Polish and Swedish authorities to intervene immediately in this case to assist the Klaman family in the proceedings pending in Sweden regarding parental rights and access to their minor children.
Under Article 8 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, sisters have the right to be brought up in a natural family environment. Separating children from their loving parents and siblings by placing them in foster homes with strangers, where they are not even free to use their mother tongue, is a grave injustice that we cannot condone. We therefore demand that the siblings be returned as soon as possible to the care of their parents, whom they miss dearly, or at least placed with a single, related foster family – an aunt and uncle – until the matter is resolved.
Swedish officials abducted Polish children with permission of Polish court
Ewa and Roman Klaman had lived for years in Sweden, where they raised their four daughters, Kinga, Tarja, Aurora and Diana. Their house rules included light housework, which did not sit well with their eldest daughter, who (by her own admission) lied to the school superintendent about her parents’ psychological abuse. This set in motion a tragic chain of events that shattered the lives of the entire family.
Without checking the veracity of the teenager’s words, the Swedish social services took Kinga into care. The authorities also demanded the return of their other daughters. Mr and Mrs Klaman, terrified at the prospect of losing all their children, fled to Poland, leaving all their possessions in Sweden.
Unfortunately, they were not safe in Poland either. At the request of the Swedish office, the Polish court, against the position of the institutions monitoring the family’s situation, issued decisions to immediately take the children and hand them over to the Swedish side.
“I want to go home too! I want the government to let me go home and return to Poland, to my sisters, my mum and my dad!
14-year-old Kinga
Children’s rights violated
The way in which the proceedings were conducted by both the Swedish and Polish sides is highly questionable. The children’s interests and rights were violated. Kinga Klaman was taken away from her family even though she admitted to lying.
A Polish court extradited the children, who were Polish citizens and had moved to Poland with their parents, who had full custody. In its decision, the court failed to take into account that the sudden and violent separation of the children from their parents and the rest of their siblings is clearly contrary to their best interests.
The children were taken from their parents by masked police officers. The children were dressed only in panties and nightgowns. No one asked the parents about the girls’ health or possible chronic illnesses.
The youngest, 7-year-old Diana, has been diagnosed with autism and must wear glasses. The director of the Swedish orphanage where she was placed had no idea.
Kinga and the youngest, Diana, are in foster care, separated from their sisters. Only Tarja and Aurora are together. No one considered placing the children in foster care with family members to alleviate the effects of this dramatic situation for them.
The children were placed with foster families who did not speak Polish. What’s more, the girls were not allowed to speak their mother tongue at home.
The court dealing with the case in Poland has reported the children’s mother to the prosecutor’s office for refusing to give officials her daughters’ passports.
