Spectre of children's gulag haunts Sweden
CHRIS MOSEY reports from Stockholm on social workers versus parents
|
Chris Mosey is a
journalist and researcher with close connections to the Celsius Center for
Scandinavian Studies. This article was published in THE OBSERVER, August 19,
1984. |
The
removal of a four year-old girl from her parents has focused attention on the
power of intrusion into family life that Sweden grants civil servants.
Social
workers seized Victoria Busse, daughter of West German musician Timm Busse and
his Israeli wife Ester, two months ago.
She
was reunited last Wednesday with her parents after an investigation by The
Observer. But social welfare authorities will apply on Tuesday for a new order
to take Victoria back into care.
"It
is now a matter of prestige for them," said Magnus Sjolin, Timm Busse's
lawyer. "My client is being persecuted simply because he is fighting the
system."
Busse
said: "Now we have got Victoria back, we will not flee the country as many
people have advised. We will stay and fight!" He is demanding an apology
from the Swedish authorities and has reported the social workers concerned to
Sweden's Justice Ombudsman.
For
their part, the social workers will contest on Tuesday a court decision
rescinding their right to take Victoria into care.
Busse,
25, says Victoria was taken from him purely on hearsay evidence that she was
beaten. This was given to the authorities in anonymous telephone calls from his
Swedish neighbours, with whom he had a long-running feud.
He
told The Observer that when the case was settled and he had received an
apology, the family would leave Sweden for good, possibly for Britain,
"where there still remains justice for the individual."
Victoria
is one of thousands of children who have been forcibly removed from their
parents by the authorities in Sweden, on evidence that would not be acceptable
elsewhere in Western Europe.
Figures
of children in care are hard to come by but in 1981, 12,378 children were taken
from their parents, 1,398 of them forcibly.
The
total number of children in care was 24,000. The authorities say that, since
then, the law has changed and that in 1982 only 943 children were forcibly
taken into care. This remains an astonishing total in a country with a
population of only 8,500,000.
Busse
says, and is supported by official documentation I have seen on the case, that
Victoria was taken into care purely on the evidence given in anonymous phone
calls by his neighbours. "I do not get on well with my neighbours,"
he admitted. "Both my wife and I have artistic temperaments."
He
also says that the social workers are bemused by the fact that he and his wife
do not want Victoria to go to a day care centre.
Until
she was taken into care, Victoria was looked after by her father while her
mother worked in a laundry. "It might be a little unconventional but I am
studying music, so it suited me to be at home,' said Busse.
Ester
Busse, 24, said : "I want to work but I want Victoria to be brought up by
us, not by the Swedish state.
After
the neighbours complained, two social workers visited the family's three-room
flat in Brandbergen, a dormitory town in the Haninge area near Stockholm, and
ordered them to take Victoria to hospital for medical examination.
"I
panicked," said Busse. "I had read that such a hospital examination
was always the first step to them taking your children from you."
The
family took a boat from Sweden to Finland, then another boat to Hamburg where German
police informed them that an order had been made in Stockholm taking Victoria
into care.
Busse
sought legal advice then took Victoria for an examination by Professor Helmut
Bochncke, a respected children's doctor.
His
report concluded: "The child is completely believable, speaks English, and
answers without inhibition and freely. There are no signs whatsoever of illness
or injury. The child's nature speaks clearly against a disturbed relationship
with the parents. The child is open, candid and happy."
Armed
with the report, the family returned to Sweden. "I deeply regret it
now," said Busse.
On
25 June, social workers Eva Björklund and Inger Wolf accompanied by two
plainclothes police officers took Victoria to hospital.
After
a week of medical tests, Victoria was sent to Edshöjden children's home, 25
miles from the Busses' home.
The
final medical report on Victoria by Dr Gunnar Braathen, described her as
"healthy and talkative." It said: There was no sign of fresh or old
fractures ... no sign of maltreatment."
The
social workers said Victoria could return home next month if the Busses agreed
to abide by a nine-point 'work plan.'
This
required the parents to attend a local psychiatric therapy group once a week
for at least a year. Victoria should also be enrolled at a day care centre,
staying there for a minimum of seven hours, each day. In the interim, Ester
Busse, 24, would have to join her daughter in the children's home "to get
insight into her role as a parent."
An
official investigation has been ordered into allegations by Busse that Victoria
was mistreated by one of the staff at the Edshojden children's home. He says he
took pictures during one visit showing burn marks and scratches on her body.
A Family's Flight from the Welfare State