Thousands of people went to the streets in Romania's biggest cities, as well as in other European and American cities, in support of a Romanian family living in Norway, whose children had been taken by the Norwegian social services.

The Norwegian authorities already opened the international adoption procedure for the five children of the Bodnariu family.

More than 2,000 people gathered in Bucharest’s Victoriei Square on Saturday, with similar protests being organized in other cities across the country such as Cluj-Napoca, Constanta, and Timisoara, reports local Mediafax. The protesters said they wanted the social investigation in Norway to be done faster and the Romanian authorities to be more actively involved in resolving this case so that the family could be reunited.

Thousands of people also protested in front of Norway's Embassies in the US, Canada, Ireland, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark. With banners saying “Norway, stop child kidnapping,” “Reunite the Bodnariu family,” and “Children belong to the family,” the protestors asked Norway to stop what they called the abuses in this case and return the children to the Bodnariu family.

Romanian IT specialist Marius Bodnariu and his Norwegian wife Ruth Bodnariu, who is a nurse, have lived in Norway for the past 10 years. In mid-November last year, the Norwegian child protection services (Barnevernet) took the family’s five children and placed them in three separate foster homes. The Norwegian authorities took over the children after receiving a complaint from the principal of Vevring School, where two of the children went. In this complaint, the principal “expressed her concerns regarding the girls’ religious upbringing, her understanding that the girls were being disciplined at home, and that she considered the parents and grandmother to be radical Christians,” according to a press release of the Bodnariu family.

After arresting and interrogating the parents, the Norwegian authorities decided not to return the children to their family and accused the parents of physically abusing their children.

At the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ request, the National Authority for Child Protection and Adoption in Romania started a social investigation and decided to ask the Norwegian authorities to place the children in the family of the paternal uncle living in Romania.

Last Friday, there was a new talk at the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the ambassador of Norway in Bucharest, Tove Bruvik Westberg. During this talk, “both parties reiterated the importance of supported cooperation in Bodnariu family’s case,” reads the Ministry’s statement.

The Romanian ambassador to Norway will also hold a talk with representatives of the Norwegian Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion on January 13.

Norwegian authorities’ decision to take five children from their family spurs protest in Romania

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Norway return the children to Bodnariu family on Facebook)