The German Youth Welfare Office (Jugendamt), which claims to promote the welfare of children, has taken away two children of a Polish mother, Klaudia Majewska, causing outrage in Poland and prompting press inquiries that the German office refuses to answer.
The Jugendamt separated the children, a 3-year-old girl and 2-year-old boy, and put them under the care of Muslim families from Turkey. In response, the Polish Association Against Child Discrimination in Germany has taken action, and a court hearing concerning the fate of the children is scheduled for Friday.
Majewska went to a social agency in Germany in 2018 to help find a home for herself and her family. She had been living at her mother’s home in the meantime. The Jugendamt instead decided to take her 6-month-old baby away from her, and later her young daughter. The children were put into Turkish Muslim families.
The agency only permits minimal contact between the mother and the children. Majewska and her children are Polish citizens, and she has claimed that her children are being mistreated.
The Jugendamt has refused to comment on the issue despite pressure from the Polish Press Agency.
Wojciech Pomorski of the Polish Association Against Child Discrimination in Germany has decided to investigate the matter. He emphasized that there is no clear reason for the German youth welfare agency to take the children away from Majewska and that their separation and placement in Turkish families is scandalous.
“In such a situation, if the children had to be temporarily separated from their mother, they should have been placed in a family close to them both culturally and linguistically,” he said.
A case is currently underway in a German family court. On Aug. 21, it will be decided whether the children will return to her mother. According to unofficial information, the Polish ambassador to Germany Andrzej Przyłębski will be present at the hearing.
