Hi Sabine,
I am sure you would want me to be frank,and though as usual you spoke very well and with great clarity the content was to me disappointing .
If you get another chance I would not waste precious time discussing individual cases (none of the speakers following you did that) .
Many delegates showed they were uncertain what forced adoption mean’t and one man even asked if you were referring to foster care or adoption!
I shall therefore be rather presumptuous and respectfully suggest that you could make the following points if you get the chance:-
1:- Forced adoption is the removal of a child from its parents without their consent and usually against their will.Systematic forced adoption pursued as a government priority is unique to the UK. EU countries manage without it therefore it is not as claimed a “last resort”
2:-The result is that the parents lose all contact with the child usually for the rest of its life and never know if it is alive or dead.
3:- This can happen to parents who have never been convicted of any crime because they are thought to pose a risk to a child in the future
Mothers frequently have their babies removed at birth for “risk of emotional abuse” .A prediction difficult for anyone to disprove.
4:- This also happens to citizens of the EU when visiting the UK so that their children are forcibly adopted by persons speaking a different language and living a completely different culture and a different religion even when these parents have committed no criminal offence.
5:- This also happens to UK citizens visiting other EU countries where they give birth but are subsequently pursued by the British authorities who make care orders after the departure and persuade the foreign court to allow them to take the baby to the UK for forced adoption .
6:- Forced adoption violates the human rights act article 8 to a private family life undisturbed by public authority and also threatens the basic EU principle of “freedom of movement “ If EU visitors to UK who have committed no crimes risk having their children forcibly adopted.
7:- The solution to this problem would be for the EU authorities to ban on human rights grounds the adoption of children in EU States without the consent of parents( especially foreign visitors) who have not committed any crime that could compromise the interests of their children .
Regards,
IAN