NRI kids: Krishna urges envoy to act

New Delhi, Jan 22 (IBNS) External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Sunday urged the Indian Ambassador in Norway to call on the Norwegian Foreign Minister and pursue them to hand over to the Bengali parents their children taken away by the Norwegian Childcare Services.

"If at any cost it can´t be done as per their laws, then kids should be sent back to India to their grandparents. It should be treated with utmost seriousness," Kishna was quoted saying by CNN IBN.

Krishna said he would speak to his Norwegian counterpart as well, reports said.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) leader Brinda Karat on Saturday had met President Pratibha Patil over the separation of the two children from their Indian parents in Norway after the kids were taken away by the Nordic nation´s child welfare service citing incapability of their parents to take care of them.

Karat was accompanied by the grandparents of the NRI kids.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a statement on Saturday said: "The matter of the separation of three-year old Abhigyan and one-year old Aishwarya from their natural parents by the Norwegian Childcare Services which placed them under foster care has been pursued actively with Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the strong demarches that were made in Oslo and in New Delhi on January 5, 2012."

The MEA said on January 12, an official of the Indian Embassy in Oslo visited the foster home where the young children are staying and ascertained that they were in good health.

"Following this visit the Embassy reiterated the concerns of Government of India to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the children were being deprived of the undoubted benefits of being brought up in their own ethnic, religious cultural and linguistic milieu.

"Hence, the return of the children to India so that they can be brought up in familiar surroundings under the loving care of their extended family would be in their best long-term interests," said the MEA.

"The Norwegian authorities have expressed understanding for the Government's concerns and it is understood that they are trying to find a solution. The matter will continue to be pursued with them actively," read the statement.

The couple from Kolkata, Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya, who are non resident Indian (NRI) citizens, have said that Norway's child protection service Barnevernet took away their two-and-a-half-year-old son Abhigyan and four-month-old daughter Aishwarya on May 11.

The Embassy has sought access to both children to check on their welfare.

On Nov 30, a court in Norway ruled that the two children will be placed in separate foster homes till they are 18, with their parents, who currently live in Stavangers city, being permitted to meet them only twice in a year for one hour at a time.

In 2005, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child had expressed concern "at the number of children removed from families and put in foster homes in Norway."

It also said Norway must protect the natural family environment and send children to foster homes as a last resort in the best interests of the child.