Eyes wide with bewilderment, a six-month-old baby born in the UK is handed over to carers in Bratislava – because his Slovak mother didn’t want to raise him.
The baby boy – who is known only as Benjamin – had just made it through a tearful two hour and 40 minute flight with two British social workers. He is teething and they tried to comfort him as best they could. He was then handed over to authorities outside the airport in Bratislava, who whisked him away to a nearby children’s home.
Speaking about the UK’s decision to send the tiny baby back to the Continent, the Slovak social worker who met him at the airport said: ‘I hope that his life in his homeland will be good and he will be happy.’ Benjamin had been born in Liverpool after his mother settled in England, but because his parents only recently came to the UK he does not qualify for British citizenship.
This is because since 2006, babies born to parents from the European Economic Area only get British citizenship if at least one parent has lived in the UK continuously for five years prior to the birth. As he is technically a Slovak citizen, he is the responsibility of their courts, and had to be handed over to Slovak authorities rather than be adopted in Britain. Courts in Britain have been warned that they need to be far more sensitive to rights of other European countries when it comes to child welfare. Last year judges and social workers in Britain were told that they must not seize control of the lives of foreign children.
Sir James Munby, the most senior family law judge, said foreign authorities should always have a say in cases involving their nationals – and the future of children from troubled families who live mainly in other European countries must be decided by their own courts.
In January last year he said: ‘It is one of frequently voiced complaints that the courts of England and Wales are exorbitant in their exercise of their care jurisdiction over children from other European countries.’ He then ordered that no court in Britain can order a child with citizenship of another country to be taken from their parents or given up for adoption.
As a result of Sir James’ ruling, Benjamin was flown to Bratislava with two Merseyside social workers who handed him over to the authorities so he could be put up for adoption. Before he was even born his unmarried mother, who has not been identified, had told social services in the UK that neither she nor the Slovak father would be able to take care of him. It is understood he was taken into care in Merseyside and social services contacted the Slovak government body responsible for children in foreign countries.