More than 300,000 children in Sweden have been forcefully separated by the Swedish authorities from their parents since 1920, according to a report by the Nordic Committee for Human Rights prepared for the Council of Europe.
In an exclusive interview with Astro AWANI, lawyer and founder of NCHR, Siv Westerberg, explains that there is widespread exploitation amongst those in the Swedish judiciary and social welfare system.
"It is terrible that these families are broken up and the root cause of it all is money. I have even handled a case where a foster family was receiving 155,000 Kronas (RM80,000) a month for taking care of five foster children," she says.
Westerberg adds that according to the statistics that she has, 45% of these cases involve children whose parents are foreigners, refugees or immigrants.
"This is shocking because the population in Sweden doesn't even consist of 45% foreigners," she says.
Children who have been separated from their parents due to alleged 'abuse' have rights that they should all realise exists. Amongst them are the right to meet their parents and family members as well as independent legal counsel.
"The children have the right to meet their parents especially, but this is something that is almost always denied by the authorities. In fact, the Swedish government has been condemned by the international courts for this issue before and I have won cases like these where the government has had to pay compensation to the families," she explains.
"The children are also entitled to legal counsel and they will be appointed to them by the authorities. However, these lawyers pretend that the allegations made by the authorities are always well founded."
Westerberg adds that parents and children who have been separated forcefully by the authorities are entitled to appoint their own lawyers. She also expressed her wish to suggest the right legal counsel for Azizul Raheem Awaluddin, Shalwati Nurshal and their children.
The Malaysian couple have been detained since middle December 2013 for allegedly abusing their son for not performing his prayers. Azizul is a staff of Tourism Malaysia in Stockholm while his wife, Shalwati, is a secondary school teacher. Their four children are now under foster care.
Zan Azlee
Mon Jan 20 2014
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