At the family farm in Halland, seven small children lived isolated from society in a kind of generational housing. Earlier this year, the administrative court decided that four of the children, from one of the families, would be taken into care according to lvu. One of the children is a 2-year-old girl who does not have a social security number and is not in any authority’s register. “If the girl child exists, she is completely left to her parents to have her basic needs met,” it says in the administrative court’s ruling.
When the social services and ten police patrols came to the farm to pick up the children, the family had gone underground. The parents’ former representative, Elisabeth Scheffer, does not know where they are.
The parents now communicate with the outside world in online videos, where they, among other things, claim their right to live as they wish. On Friday, they released another movie sequence where the children read religious texts.
Now the Minister of Social Affairs Lena Hallengren (S) reacts to DN’s revelation.
– I’m upset. It is particularly worrying that no one knows how the children are doing now, she says.
DN’s review shows that the parents have not been notified of the lvu judgment. They therefore do not commit any crime when they disappear with the children, before the decision has been enforced. The police have no authority to act. And the police can not call for the children.
– If the legislation is intended to protect the children, the parents can take the edge off the legislation just like this, by going underground, chamber prosecutor Eva Lotta Swahn has told DN earlier.
Minister of Social Affairs Lena Hallengren has has taken part in DN’s review and says that the gap in the law has been identified in the judiciary already several years ago.
– It was the Public Prosecutor’s Office that drew attention to the problem. Therefore, we commissioned an investigator to remedy the shortcoming, she says.
The investigation is now complete and proposes, among other things, that it should be a criminal offense to abduct a child in order to avoid the child being taken into care. The crime that would be applicable is arbitrariness with children.
– The possibility for the social services to take care of and place children against the guardian’s consent is there to protect the children from harm. If you then as a guardian instead of removing the children, it is just as bad regardless of whether it happens before or after the decision has been executed, says Lena Hallengren.
The inquiry, which will be sent for consultation on Monday, proposes that the amendments to the law will enter into force on 1 July 2023.
“It should not take longer than necessary”
It is proposed that this law be able to enter into force in 1.5 years. Is there a reason to speed up the process?
– It should not take longer than necessary, but it is a complicated legislation when it comes to placing children. We are now sending the proposals for consultation. Then we will take into account the views of the consultative bodies.
In the investigation there are also proposals for an extended travel ban for children who may be suspected of being in danger if they are taken abroad, for example through psychological and physical violence.
On Friday, the Swedish Health and Care Inspectorate, Ivo, announced that a supervisory case would be initiated against the social services in Varberg municipality after DN’s review.
Facts. DN’s examination of the children on the family farm
￭ DN’s review is based on a review of public documentation from several Swedish authorities: the Administrative Court, the Court of Appeal, the Police Authority and the Swedish Tax Agency. We have systematized a large number of documents and asked ourselves the question: what has happened on the farm and how have the authorities acted?
The review has shown that small seven children from two families in the same family have lived isolated from society on the farm in Halland. They have not gone to preschool or elementary school. BVC, healthcare or dental care have also not been in contact with the children. They live “an isolated life”, according to the social services’ investigations.
￭ The case came to DN’s knowledge through a data analysis that we made of a large number of administrative judgments. DN has looked for judgments that deviated in different ways and then this case stood out.
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Read more:
The discovery on the family farm – seven children outside the community
The principal about the children: “I went to the farm”