Poland’s Ministry of Justice sees no “flagrant violation of the EU’s legal order” in the Klaman family’s case

Klaman family archive

• The ordeal of the Polish Klaman family, whose three children were taken away by Swedish officials with the permission of a Polish court on July 4, 2024, has been ongoing for seven months.

• In September of last year, opposition MP Michał Wójcik submitted a parliamentary inquiry to the Polish Minister of Justice into the actions that had been taken by the state’s institutions regarding those Polish minors who had been deported to Sweden from Polish territory.

• Undersecretary of State at the Ministry Justice Zuzanna Rudzińska-Bluszcz finally responded after more than four months, indicating that the Ministry does not see any “flagrant violation of the EU’s legal order” in this case.

• Legal assistance to the family is being provided by lawyers from the Ordo Iuris Institute.

A family that has been unlawfully broken up

Ewa and Robert Klaman had lived in Sweden since 2015, where they raised four daughters: Kinga, Tarja, Aurora, and Diana. The parents insisted that the children help with minor household chores, which did not please their eldest girl. The teenager – by her own admission – lied to her school’s superintendent, claiming that her parents were emotionally abusing her. 

Then, without bothering to verify the veracity of the child’s words, the Swedish social services placed Kinga in foster care. Officials then asked the parents if they would also voluntarily surrender their other children to the Swedish state, despite the fact that no guardianship proceedings were pending against them. In response, the parents returned with their other daughters to Poland, leaving all their possessions behind in Sweden.

Both the parents and their children possess only Polish citizenship. Upon returning to their home country in February 2024, the couple’s parental authority over their three younger daughters was not limited by the state in any way. Furthermore, at that time no decision to immediately take control of the girls’ care had been made by the Swedish social welfare board and moreover, there had been no ruling by a Swedish court upholding such a move. Despite this, the Nysa District Court in Poland, running contrary to the opinion of those Polish institutions that were actively monitoring the family’s situation, decided to immediately take the remaining children into custody and hand them over to the Swedish authorities.

The Ministry of Justice, while the court proceedings were still ongoing, submitted to the Swedish authorities an interview with the family that had been conducted by a Polish probation officer, who had found no grounds for taking the children away. The Polish Ministry asked, on the basis of this evidence, whether the Swedish authorities would withdraw their application. Responding to the Polish Ministry’s letter, the Swedish authorities nevertheless upheld their request to take the children, further indicating that a foster family was already waiting for them in Sweden.

With all of the girls now in foster care in Sweden, Ordo Iuris’ lawyers have asked the Polish Minister of Justice and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to intervene in the case and provide support in the minors’ custody proceedings. In response, Poland’s Ministry of Justice stated that it had “completed its tasks related to the Swedish party’s request,” and pointed out that “exclusive jurisdiction over the Poles’ children is held by the Swedish courts and institutions.” It also recommended establishing or continuing cooperation with the Polish consular services in Sweden, or else contacting the Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department.

The fight to get the children back

The Ordo Iuris Institute first reported on the Klaman family’s case  on July 24, 2024. One day later, a petition was launched which was addressed to the prime ministers of Poland and Sweden, along with an appeal for urgent intervention in this case. It was signed by more than 23,000 people online. In subsequent articles, Ordo Iuris described the steps being taken by its lawyers to help bring the four Klaman children home to Poland, including their regular communications with the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Children’s Ombudsman, the Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Polish Consul in Sweden.

The goal of our lawyers who are representing Ewa and Robert Klaman is, firstly, to at the very least ensure that all of the children are placed in the care of only one foster family that they are related to and who reside in Poland – specifically, their aunt and uncle (whom the children know well and with whom they feel comfortable) – until these custody proceedings are completed.

Intervening at the Ministry of Justice

The case appalled public opinion so much that it was covered by many domestic and foreign media outlets. It has also not escaped the attention of Polish parliamentarians.

MP Michał Wójcik addressed questions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on September 2, 2024 regarding the actions that were being taken by the state’s institutions in this case involving minors who were deported to Sweden from Polish territory, expressing his indignation at the blatant omissions perpetrated by these institutions in the Klaman children’s case. In his letter, he asked:

1. Has the Ministry of Justice contacted the Polish Prosecutor’s Office to inform them that there is no legal basis for ordering the deportation of Polish children from Poland to Sweden?

2. Did the prosecutor argue the children’s case before the Polish courts? And if so, under what provisions did the Polish prosecutor handle those cases involving the Klaman children? What position was taken by the prosecutor who is in charge of upholding the rule of law as exercised in these cases?

3. Has the Ministry of Justice approached the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the fact that the children have been taken to Sweden, and that therefore direct supervision of the children’s placement in foster care by a consular representative is required?

4. Is it true that the children were placed in different homes via foster care? If so, what steps has the Ministry of Justice taken to reunite the siblings? (Such separation constitutes a gross violation of children’s rights.)

5. What action has been taken by the Polish consulate regarding the minors?

6. Has the Ministry of Justice, as the central authority, requested that its Swedish counterpart explain why the children were separated, and why the EU regulation mandating the absolute preservation of children’s national and cultural identity is not being respected?

7. Has the Polish Ministry taken steps to inform the central authority in Sweden that this situation involves a flagrant violation of the EU’s legal order?

The Polish Ministry’s negligence

In response, the Minister of Justice – more than four months after the parliamentary inquiry was submitted – indicated that he had not notified the Polish Prosecutor’s Office that there was no legal basis for ordering the deportation of Polish children from Poland to Sweden. The Ministry of Justice had merely forwarded a request to the District Court in Nysa to enforce the decision that had been handed down by the administrative court in Jönköping, Sweden regarding the taking into custody of the minors Tarja, Aurora, and Diana Klaman. This court notified the Nysa District Prosecutor’s Office that proceedings had been initiated.

As the representative of Poland’s Ministry of Justice indicates, “The prosecutor of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Nysa, on the basis of Article 60 § 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, reported his participation in these proceedings, and after reviewing the content of the ruling that had been made in the case by the Court at a closed session on July 1, 2024, he assessed it as correct. He also pointed out that jurisdiction in this case had been established on the basis of the child’s habitual residence – which, according to the Swedish court, is in Poland, and thus the Polish court had no right to challenge the Swedish court’s jurisdiction.” Such a position contradicts the provisions of domestic law, which provides mechanisms for establishing domestic jurisdiction. The Ministry of Justice’s response shows that Polish officials as well as the judiciary have not taken any action to preserve the children’s national and cultural identity and to respect those principles that are outlined in the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Polish Ministry then indicated that throughout the procedure which had followed from the Swedish side’s request, it had remained in contact with the Swedish Foreign Ministry, which was said to have informed the Polish ministry that the Klaman children had been placed with foster families after they were brought to Sweden, and that no information had been provided suggesting that the girls were in danger.

According to the Polish Ministry, no factual basis had been found for the Ministry of Justice to notify the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the children had been deported to Sweden and that direct supervision by a consulate representative was required regarding the children’s placement in foster care. As a result, no such action was taken.

Regarding the demand for clarification regarding the children’s separation, Poland’s Ministry of Justice indicated that “based on exams as well as the opinion of a child psychologist, the Swedish social services assessed that the siblings should not be placed together in one foster family” due to the children’s extensive care needs and past traumas. The Polish Ministry then concluded that it had not found any “gross violation of the EU’s legal order” in the case. It follows that for this decision too, Poland’s Ministry of Justice relied entirely on the opinion of the Swedish social services without any further investigation of its own.

In the opinion of the Ordo Iuris Institute’s lawyers, the principle according to which persons related to minors by blood or affinity should be prioritized in their foster care must be taken into account. So should the rights of children as established by the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, according to which they must be raised in their natural family environment and in an atmosphere of happiness, love, and understanding, not to mention the fact that family life should be shielded from state interference. Given all this, it is fully justified to demand that the Swedish authorities temporarily place the minors in the care of a foster family that is related to them, in a stable and safe environment. The family’s attorneys have emphasized that placing children in such a foster family would help to alleviate the stressful experience of being separated from their parents, and establish conditions for the children to develop naturally. 

The Institute’s lawyers have been unrelenting in their fight to have the children returned to Poland.  Despite the Opole Regional Court’s dismissal of the complaint against the court of first instance’s decision to discontinue the proceedings due to its lack of domestic jurisdiction, Ordo Iuris will use all available legal means to demand that European standards regarding the protection of family life should be applied in the case of Mr. and Mrs. Klaman’s family. As the Ordo Iuris Institute’s lawyers have repeatedly pointed out, overzealous application of EU law must never be a pretext for the hasty, unjustified, and unlawful breakup of families, and genuine concern for the welfare of children should always take precedence.

RETURN THE KLAMAN CHILDREN TO POLAND – PETITION