The NCHR has started a search service to help parents find their children, when the social authorities place their children who are forcibly taken into public care, in secret foster homes. We have also started a search service where parents, who suspect that their children who have been forcibly removed from their care, are not being properly cared for or ill treated by the foster parents, can try to get information.

Very often, the social authorities transport children who they have forcibly taken into public care, to secret foster homes, far away from their parents. The law on the ward of minors (LVU) permits that. According to the experiences of the NCHR, there are very seldom any concrete acceptable grounds to hide the child. The reason behind the actions of the social authorities seems to us to be the breaking up of the family ties between the parents and their children. Unfortunately, the social workers very often succeed in what they set out to do. A child under four years of age forgets his or her parents within half a year - they sometimes do not even recognise them. For younger children the process is even faster. This is a great tragedy that practically always is damaging to the child!

The NCHR has limited economic and personnel resources. We can not actively participate in the search for the hidden children.

What the NCHR offers is the following. Parents whose children have been forcibly taken into public care and placed in secret foster homes can send us a photo of the child, as well as information as to his or her name, civic registration number and a detailed description of the child's appearance, such as hair-colour, height, weight etc. We also ask for information about what month and year the child was taken. The parents are also requested to send their names, addresses, telephone numbers, etc, where they can be reached. The NCHR will publish this information on our home page with the following request to the public:

Should you see a child who fits this description, who on or around the dates mentioned here or later, suddenly turns up in your surroundings e.g. in your work mates' homes, your neighbourhood or in your children's kindergarten, pre-school or school, please react. You can contact the parents at the address in this advertisement, so that they may know where to start searching for their child. If you prefer, you may send your information to the NCHR (board@nkmr.org) and we will forward your information to the parents involved.

We are asking those of you who read this message to bear in mind that the foster parents often change the children's names - both the given and the surnames - shortly after they are placed in their care. The foster parents do this without the permission of the parents, the social workers or the courts. The new names are those that are used in all contacts with the children's kindergarten, pre-school or school, health care, neighbours etc. It occurs even more often that foster parents change the names of immigrant children who are taken into care. For example Frans becomes Frasse, Katarzyna becomes Kajsa and so on. This is a ruthless way of stripping a child who has been taken into care of its identity, and it also makes the parents' efforts to find their abducted children, more difficult. And remember, children grow and their appearances change quite quickly - sometimes a haircut is enough.

Parents of foster children are often refused entry to the foster homes where their forcibly placed children live. Often the social workers guarantee that the parents are not allowed to talk to their children in private, by obtaining court orders for monitored visits. Children who are ill treated in their foster homes do not dare tell their parents about their experiences, in the presence of a third party - usually the social worker, the foster parent or a person in collusion with them. The child understands that he or she will be exposed to even more abuse if the foster parents should suspect that information has been leaked to the parents.

The NCHR has knowledge of cases where children have been subjected to neglect, physical and sexual abuse in their foster homes. In some cases the children have been used as household helpers and denied the right to normal schooling.

Parents who suspect that their child/children are being neglected or ill treated in their foster homes, are invited to do the following. Send us a photo of the child, as well as information as to his or her name, civic registration number and the address of the foster home. The parents are also requested to send their names, addresses, telephone numbers, etc, where they can be reached. By publishing information about the child's name and the address of the foster home, it will be easy for you who read the NCHR home page to recognise both the child and the foster home. So, if you live close by - or have knowledge of - the child/children and/or the foster home, and you suspect that the child is not fearing well, please forward your information to the child's parents or to the NCHR. Quite often children tell their friends about their problems. So, if your child has told you anything about a foster child who is being ill-treated in his or her foster home, please inform the parents or the NCHR. We will forward your information to the child's parents.

The NCHR believes that our site and the development of the Internet can be used as a new and important tool in the struggle against the unnecessary taking of children into public care. For years parents and their lawyers have been trying to persuade newspapers, radio and television to report cases of neglect and ill treatment in foster homes. The media have almost invariably declined to publish such information.

Through the Internet we finally have a possibility of informing the public about the serious abuses that so often occur in a great number of the foster homes chosen by the social authorities. And through our new Search-service, we hope to see changes to the better.

Search-service Rebecca Hansson