Deputy Mircea Dolha (PNL), Vice-President of the committee for the Romanians abroad, said Saturday for Agerpres that in Norway there are 11 Romanian families whose children were taken by Barnevernet, but only seven of them agreed to discuss with members of the parliamentary delegation and to travel to Oslo next week, Agerpres reports.
"We know that in Norway there are 11 Romanian families whose children have been taken away by Barnevernet, and only seven of these families will meet with us, among them are also the families Nan and Bodnariu. We do not know the reason for the other four families refusal who do not wish to meet with the delegation from Romania ", Mircea Dohle said.
The Liberal MP argued that if Barnevernet will prove that the families have not complied with the Norwegian law, the guilty must be accountable.
"If it is found that mistakes were made, then the laws of the Norwegian kingdom apply and those responsible will be held accountable, but the rights of children should be observed. They should stay together, not apart, they should not be sent to unknown places. They can be entrusted to family members or even so they can still see their biological parents regularly, " Mircea Dolha added.
He stressed that the parliamentary delegation is waiting for convincing evidence related to the situation of the children taken by the Norwegian authorities.
"We need more convincing explanations on the two known cases. If until yesterday (Friday ) everyone said that Barnevernet was a service that no one could contact, which never gave information, had independence and overall power etc, this myth has gone. And it is also the merit of this parliamentary committee.
Barnevernet did well that it has begun giving these explanations and it had been better if it had done this long ago not to get in the position of having various suspicions cast on them about its procedures and thus the trip there of the parliamentary delegation of the Commission for the Romanian communities outside the borders of Romania belonging to the Chamber of Deputies in Norway would have been unnecessary", said Mircea Dolha.
Antena 3 has launched an online petition to bring to the attention of international bodies the situation of the Bodnariu family, whose children were taken by the social services. The petition has so far more than 100 thousand signatures.
The petition can be read and signed here .