Updated 06.37 | Published 06.34
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Social services were supposed to pick up the siblings they suspected of being evil, but the family had disappeared without a trace.
Until the kids showed up again.
In videos on social media.
Both school staff and social services tried to get in touch with the Swedish-Polish family, who lived in an apartment building in southern Sweden. The children had called in sick from school, but the parents could not then be reached.
“During home visits, no one opens the door. The apartment is turned off and the blinds are down,” reported the social service’s investigation.
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full screen In Polish social media and also by Swedish-Polish associations in Sweden, posts began to spread with misinformation about the case. The family’s children had been taken into care by social services due to lack of care and punishment in the home.
Shortly before the children’s disappearance, the parents had been told that the municipality intended to apply for LVU, immediate care, of their youngest child. The older sister had already been placed in emergency care, after telling the school about fights and punishments at home. She had been given a curfew and forced to clean, wash dishes and take responsibility for her younger siblings. One of the younger children had also had unexplained bruises.
Suddenly an email came to the principal of the school where the children went.
It was signed by the father:
“I returned to my country. The children will no longer go to school and kindergarten. I would like to thank you for everything”.
What the municipality did not know at the time was that a campaign for the family would soon start on the other side of the Baltic Sea.
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fullscreen The Catholic lobby organization Ordo Iuris has been involved in several cases where authorities in the Nordic countries have taken care of children. “Both Swedish and Norwegian authorities have repeatedly and for a long time violated the principle of protecting family life,” says one of the organization’s lawyers to Aftonbladet.
Started campaign
It was not the first time that the ultra-conservative, Polish lobby organization Ordo Iuris had become involved in cases against social services in the Nordic region.
– We have some experience from the Scandinavian countries, we helped some Norwegians get asylum in Poland due to a similar case, says Olivier Bault, the organisation’s communications manager.
The Catholic Ordo Iuris is completely against abortion, lobbies against LGBTQI rights, and has a staff of lawyers who pursue cases for the right of parents to raise their children according to conservative values and without government interference. In some cases, they also fight against authorities in other countries.
For example, the organization has committed itself to a father who fled to Poland from Sweden, where he claimed that his daughters would be placed in foster care with Muslims.
– Thanks to our intervention, the girls were not sent back to Sweden, says Olivier Bault from Ordo Iuris.
According to them, there are many similarities between the various cases in the Nordics, where they claim that social services are unable to respect the children’s rights and protect family life.
Last fall, a new case appeared on the organization’s radar: the Swedish-Polish family who would have their children taken into care. The parents claimed that the eldest daughter’s testimony was fabricated, that she had been looking at her mobile phone too much, and refused to walk the dog and clean her room.
Ordo Iuris started a collection of names, created a hashtag and tried to get the attention of Swedish and Polish politicians, diplomats and authorities in Sweden. Their criticism was mainly about the children being extradited to Sweden and not placed in foster care with relatives.
“Give back our Polish children!”, they demanded in submissions in favor of the family.
And soon more would join.
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fullscreenPolish authorities were involved when Sweden requested that the children be extradited and taken into care.
“Longing for the homeland”
It turned out that the family had left Sweden just the day before the decision on LVU for the younger siblings came into effect.
Tickets from the shipping company TT-Line show how they boarded the ferry between Trelleborg and Polish Svinoujcue in the middle of the night.
“The move has not been carried out with the aim of escaping the Swedish authorities. On the contrary, there has been a longing to come back to the homeland and to family and friends in Poland”, the parents then claim via their lawyers in the legal process that is being initiated, on both sides of the Baltic Sea.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ special group for child abduction issues were involved, and also the Polish court. In the end, the children were picked up by Polish police and could be taken to Sweden and waiting family homes.
At the same time, videos of the parents speaking out began to appear on YouTube and spread on social media.
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full screen Polish politicians and YouTubers have made several features about the case on social media.
Spread campaign on Tiktok
“Scandal! Without reason, the children were taken from their parents and taken to Sweden”, was the headline in the Polish Internet TV channel PL1, which has made several features about the case. The channel has also called the eldest daughter, who is now 14 years old and lives in the family home, to let her take back her accusations against the parents, in front of the camera.
On Tiktok, Polish right-wing populist member of parliament Sławomir Mentzen stated that the care of the children was illegal and that the authorities behind it should rot in prison.
“One accusation of abuse is enough for the Swedish state to immediately react with a fast and brutal process that deprives parents of all opportunities to defend themselves,” claimed one of several Polish YouTubers who spread misinformation about the case, to thousands of followers.
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full screen Under the heading “Give back our Polish children!” signatures were collected online.
That the parents were not allowed to defend themselves and give their version is not true: their case has been brought forward in several courts in Sweden. However, both the administrative court and the court of appeals have determined that the children had a home situation with threats and violence as well as extensive lack of care.
Swedish associations for Swedish-Poles have also spread the campaign via, for example, Facebook. In that way, the campaign is reminiscent of other LVU campaigns aimed at Sweden.
Magnus Ranstorp, terror expert and research leader at the University of Defense, says that social media played a decisive role in the fact that the large LVU campaign, which spread disinformation about authorities kidnapping Muslim children, had such a huge impact.
“Dangerous for the children”
– Social services are still living with the problems from the campaign. And with difficulties in establishing trust and a lot of hatred and threats in some cases, he says.
Magnus Ranstorp has written a report on the large LVU campaign around Muslim children, which contributed to raising the terror threat level against Sweden. But the campaign had more consequences than that.
– Mainly it is dangerous for the children and families if they cannot have a dialogue with the authorities and it leads to misunderstandings and unnecessary fear. But it is also about social cohesion in the country. If you have too different views on how to interpret reality, there will be big problems.
Aftonbladet has been in contact with the representatives of the Swedish-Polish children regarding the posts that are being spread on social media and are exposing the children’s identities and stories.
– I perceive it as reckless when the campaign has been run from the children’s home country and the young people have been exposed, among other things, on YouTube, he says.