The European Court of Human Rights have dismissed a challenge to Norway’s child welfare agency for having taken a Romanian Christian family’s five children into care without fully investigating their concerns about abuse.
The Bodnariu family, whose separation by Norwegian authorities hit the headlines in 2015, brought a case against the Norwegian government arguing that the basis of the removal of the children was related to the lead social care worker’s prejudices against the family’s Pentecostal faith and for failing to properly investigate the matter before taking steps to separate the family.
The head teacher who had initially raised concerns when one of the children got into trouble at school and asked for her parents not to be informed as she may be smacked, also suggested the children’s development may have been impaired by the parent’s faith. The head later defended the children’s parents saying they were good parents and wouldn’t allow the child welfare representatives into the school grounds to see the children.
