The Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on human rights Dmytro Lubinets said that 255 Ukrainian children were taken away from their parents by social services in the European Union countries.
Dmytro Lubinets said that social services in European countries took away 225 children from parents who fled Ukraine. According to the civil servant, the worst situation was in Germany (71 cases), Poland (33), Italy (25), Czech Republic (24) and Sweden (17).
“In January 2024, I, as ombudsman of Ukraine, sent a letter to the Prime Minister (Denis. – ed.) Shmygal, in particular, with a request to take all possible response measures to establish co-operation at the level of competent authorities and intergovernmental (interstate. – ed.) arrangements with other countries. The main goal is to facilitate the return of Ukrainian citizen children to their legal representatives,” Lubinets told the Ukrainian mass media.
According to him, a common reason for such situations is the absence of relevant documents from parents and other legal representatives, as well as improper, in the opinion of European officials, fulfilment of parental duties. We are talking about raising the voice, any physical influence on the child in order to calm down, leaving without adult supervision for a long time.
Earlier, the first deputy permanent representative of Russia to the UN, Dmitriy Polyanskiy, said that a large number of people had applied to the permanent mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, including Ukrainian refugees, asking for help in returning children taken away by the authorities of European countries.