Zimbabweans in UK lose children to social services

CHILDREN of Zimbabwean families resident in the UK are being seized by social workers on an astonishing scale. Most are taken never to be seen again.

If the parents discipline their children and the case is reported at school, before you know it, the house is raided and the children, all of them, are bundled out of the house.

Terrified, children are plucked out of their parents' care to the shadows of total strangers. In most cases, the sharp cultural differences have led to the cruel loss of children.

A remarkable meeting recently took place at the House of Commons, organised by John Hemming, the only MP who, for years, has been battling on behalf of those thousands of families being torn apart each year, for no good reason, by our weirdly dysfunctional 'child protection' system.

The meeting was attended by representatives of no fewer than 34 countries, including four ambassadors, all concerned at the astonishing scale at which the children of foreign families resident in the UK are being seized by social workers to be taken into foster care or sent for adoption.

One estimate suggests that these now include no fewer than 6 500 of the 67 000 children currently in state ‘care' in England, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds a year. By the help of their embassies, the European citizens got help from their embassies but it was through the courts.

One particular concern by many of those attending from 14 European countries was that, far too often, the seizing of their children appears to be in breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, enshrining in law the right to respect for family life.

So outraged last year was the Slovak Government at the treatment of two small Slovak boys that it threatened to haul the UK Government before the European Court of Human Rights.

For once, the social workers were eventually ordered by the Court of Appeal to allow the children's mother to take them back to Bratislava. This is only one of the cases which was brought to light.

A Zimbabwean family lost all four children to social workers after disciplining their 13-year-old girl for bringing a boyfriend home and indulging in sex in her father's bedroom.

The father walked into this horror and did what any reasonable Zimbabwean man would do. He disciplined both his daughter and the boyfriend.

The police were called and the poor father was arrested and banned from seeing his children. The children were taken away, including a two-year-old.

The man was classified as a child abuser and as I write, he is fighting to have his children back. Another concern raised in the meeting was the consistent failure of our social workers to notify the embassies that their nationals have been taken into care (as Hemming explained, this is illegal), or then to allow them to have any contact with the children.

Yet the social workers are quite happy to make last-minute demands of the embassies that they provide detailed information on the families.

"Between us and the British authorities," said one speaker, "there is only one-way traffic." A further common complaint was that lawyers provided by local authorities to represent the families in court seem all too often to be hand in glove with the system, colluding to have the seized children kept in care. Most lawyers seem to agree that the children are in danger from their parents, so getting local lawyers makes the situation worse.

There are more than a dozen such stories of Zimbabwean children being removed from their parents for what appeared to be quite bizarre reasons, such as a Zimbabwean mother whose children were snatched from her when she was only visiting London for a brief holiday.

Another case involved a Zimbabwean mother who only escaped with her son back to Zimbabwe in the nick of time after she had admitted that she was a bit depressed to a stranger, who promptly reported her to social services.

It's important to note that there is money involved, hence the fostering of children is good business in the UK.

Recently, a Zimbabwean woman was sentenced to 10 years in prison for disciplining her daughter. She lost her job, her future and the daughter was placed in a care home. Sometimes children just talk at school and once your child mentions that he/she was beaten at home, a teacher is told and the police and social service are called in.

Before you know it, your house is surrounded and that will be the last you see your children. Some children are taken because the father forces them to go to church. The social services considers taking children to church as brainwashing and if you force them, you are classified as a child abuser.

The UK has generally created children who can not be admonished. However, what is clear is that the state of Britain's ‘child protection' system is rapidly becoming viewed by other countries as an international scandal.

They cannot understand how our system can be allowed to behave in such an inhuman and corrupt fashion. The system frowns at our culture of raising children. They believe their culture is superior and anything which is not theirs is repugnant to humanity. In London, a mother was shocked when the headmaster and another white parent knocked on her door stating that her child had stollen a bicycle.

Like every mother, she leaped to the defence of her child. She called him and to her shock, the child admitted stealing the bike and even said it was in the backyard. In shame, the mother slapped her son once.

Then the father of the 'victim' called the police to say a black woman is assaulting a child. The social services were called in and all the other children were taken away. Because of her job as a teacher, she was suspended and labelled a child abuser. Dozens of families have lost their children to the system. As a result, we are having stubborn children. Our culture is being trashed and our future and that of our children is in jeopardy.

For views and comment, email: vazet2000@yahoo.co.uk