Petitioning the European Parliament

 Here is Christopher Booker:

Last June, under the heading "Dutch social workers catch the English disease", I reported the extraordinary case of the 11-year-old Antonovs twins: a Russian-Latvian brother and sister forcibly snatched by Dutch social workers from their mother and older brother Ilja, primarily on the grounds that at home they spoke Russian, not Dutch. A chilling video of the twins being carried kicking and screaming to a police van is on YouTube ("Kidnap of children from their mother by Dutch social services"), recording a scene not dissimilar to ones that unfold here in Britain, many times every week.

Last Wednesday in Brussels, this video, shown to a roomful of visibly shocked MEPs and officials, was the highlight of a day-long hearing by the European Parliament’s committee of petitions into the way thousands of children in EU countries are each year being removed from their families for absurd reasons. Ilja Antonovs told the story of how his brother and sister are being kept miserably in a "living facility" run by a private company, Jeugdzorg, at a cost to Dutch taxpayers of £65,000 a year for each child. Twice the Dutch appeal court has ordered the return of the twins to their family, but each time this has been overruled by a lower "children’s court".

Among the witnesses in Brussels, for 23 petitioners from eight countries, was the Association of McKenzie Friends, led by Sabine McNeill, congratulated by the committee for her "flawless" presentation.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/10715806/MEPs-must-investigate-this-child-snatching-scandal.html

Here is Sabine McNeill one of the petitioners who presented the case on behalf of the UK Association of McKenzie friends to the European Committee.

VIDEO HERE

Now we have an indication of how out of touch social workers have become about the social realities and the part they play in devastating lives as they look forward to celebrating Social Work Day.

Like millions of others worldwide I am proud to be a social worker. Proud to be a part of a profession that acts decisively on its deep understanding of human behaviour. We assist people in difficulty and support them and their families to regain confidence, to fulfil their sense of responsibility as parents, community members and citizens – and at the same time we influence social policy and political outcomes. I am proud to be a member of a profession that makes contributions of consequence.

http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2014/mar/18/world-social-work-day-inequalities-poverty