Child protection agency hid 3 children from parents without legal approval

Veilig Thuis placed three children in a location kept secret from their parents, without obtaining the legally required authorization from a judge, Trouw reports. The action was "exremely concerning and unacceptable," according to the District Court in Breda.

In August, Veilig Thuis West-Brabant placed three children in a vacation cottage. It had, therefore, deprived the parents of their parental authority without legal authorization.

The two children, both aged around ten years old, were taken into custody by Veilig Huis following suspicions that their stepfather had physically abused them. The case came to light during an investigation by the investigative journalism platform Investico and Trouw.

“In the Netherlands, when a child is to be removed from the home without the parents’ consent, the matter must be handled through the Child Care and Protection Board and the juvenile court. Emergency procedures are available for this situation. This legal process must never be circumvented,” Mariëlle Bruning, a professor of juvenile law, told Trouw.

A child may be only placed at a secret location if a judge has authorized it. Such procedures are only unnecessary when parents themselves decide that it would be in their child’s best interest to live away from them.

In this case, the mother agreed to the children's removal at one point, her lawyers said in court. The mother has been told that her children did not want to return home, despite that reportedly not being the truth.

The judge, however, had doubts about whether the secret placement was actually voluntary. In her view, keeping the three children at a location concealed from their mother is inconsistent with the notion of a coluntary placement. On top of that, three days after the children were taken away, she had explicitly said on the phone with two Veilig Thuis workers that she did not consent to her kids being taken away and wanted them back.

At that point, Veilig Thuis should have either returned the children or asked a judge for permission to keep them away from home. Instead, its employees told the mother that the children would remain away for at least two more weeks. The agency did not obtain court approval until four days later.

The judge also criticized the conditions in which the kids were placed. Because no suitable accommodation was reportedly available within the youth care system, the children were housed at a vacation place. The employees supervising them from welfare organization CZG did not have the professional registration required under Dutch youth care standards.

The court ultimately ruled that the children could return home under round-the-clock supervision by care professionals. Their stepfather agreed to live elsewhere temporarily, making their return possible.

Veilig Thuis West-Brabant said it took the judges' ruling “extremely seriously.” It added that it “always” reflects on its role in such cases.