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A Parliament delegation will pay a visit to Norway to discuss the case of the Bodnariu children
A Parliamentary delegation made up of the members of the commission for Romanian communities abroad inteds to pay a visit to Norway between 18-22 January to discuss the case of the Bodnariu, said the vice-chairman of the commission, the liberal deputy (PNL) Mircea Dolha. ‘ We will discuss very clearly, including the investigation which was made, I understand there was a social investigation with regard to this family and their children. We want to find out any many unknown things as possible, as no one really knows the truth until we get there (…).We required to be presented the social investigation, on what basis the children were taken away’ deputy Dolha said on Wednesday.
He said that the members of the commission try to organise meetings with their counterparts from the Norwegian parliament, with the members of the government and the representatives of the Children Protection from Norway (Barnevernet) but the members of the commission are still waiting for the confirmation of the meetings.
The ministry of foreign affairs said when referring to the case of the Bodnariu that the Foreing ministry (MAE) and the Romanian embassy in Oslo are dealing with this matter and political-diplomatic measures have already been taken. According to MAE, the Romanian diplomatic mission in Oslo is in permanent contact with the family to whom they have offered several contacts of lawyers and translators and have registered the birth certificates of the five children in the Romanian registries as the children have the Norwegian citizenship as well.
MAE announced that, at bilateral level, there are no judicial instruments to allow judicial cooperation on the margin of this case. At the same time, from a judicial point of view it is not possible to consider the five children as unaccompanied minors to request their repatriation. The family benefits from the assistance of a lawyer by default who represents them with the local courts and the Norwegian authorities for child protection.
The children of the Romanian Marius Bodnariu, IT engineer and his Norwegian wife Ruth, nurse were taken by the child protection Service, Barnevernet in November, after the two eldest girls said that they are physically reprimanded by the parents. At the same time, the parents are suspected of religious indoctrination of the children.
The five children were placed in three foster families and recently the procedure for international adoption was started for them,according to the representatives of the family.