Foreign adoption under police escort

(Dost. także w języku polskim.)

On 22 December 2017 Adam Krupiński, a Polish citizen age 11, was convoyed by the Polish police to the airport and expelled from Poland for a foreign adoption, probably to Italy, in a flagrant breach of article 52 of Polish constitution as well as articles 6 and 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The child opposed a previous attempt of his foreign adoption saying that he will rather kill himself than go abroad and leave his beloved grandmother, mother and siblings. His family had not been informed about the adoption proceedings at the court and about the removal by force of the child from his fatherland.

The criminal act of the Polish police and family court in Wrocław has been purposefully committed few days after the family of Adam Krupiński filed a motion to the Polish court for protection of the child's stay in Poland and for the child's return to the family in Poland. The child has been illegally expelled from Poland one day after the European Court of Human Rights registered his case and demanded from Poland the court records concerning the child. The records have not been made accessible for the European Court of Human Rights. The day of the removal of the child from his country, Poland, was the day of the beginning of the holiday week of the Registry of the European Court. Thus the the perpetrators of the removal have been given by the Polish court and police more than a week to freely abuse the child. The use of the police to force the child to board the plain was a crime against the child, a violation of human rights and the evidence of the child's objection to the adoption. (The Wrocław policeman answered the questions about the child's fate by phone.)

The family of Adam Krupiński has been informed by a witness that shortly before the child's removal from Poland his appearance had been considerably changed, that the child's hair had been dyed. The family got also information that the child was lately subjected to an invasive medical examination comprising blood testing without any need. These information and the Christmastime chosen for the removal of the child from Poland give the ground to expect that the child's health or life may be in a grave danger. In the circumstances of the hurry, secretiveness and holiday timing of his removal from Poland it has not been ruled out that he may be abused for some criminal purpose.

The child had been isolated from his Polish family for over 5 weeks before his removal from Poland on 22 December 2017. He had not been given a chance to see his family before being removed from Poland.

Adam Krupiński has been forced to leave all his belongings in his room in his grandmother's flat in Wrocław where he lived under her care until he was moved in 2014 to a professional foster family in Wrocław. Although he lived in foster family in Wrocław, he considered his grandmother's flat to be his home and visited her very frequently, at least every second week. Adam's grandmother had been his legal guardian since his birth and for the most part of his life because his mother was not of full legal age at the moment of his birth. When the grandmother developed a serious illness, professional foster care was temporarily needed. The mother who has a very small flat applied for the full parental authority over him. They contacted every week. Adam visited his mother and young siblings.

The first attempt, brutal and unexpected for Adam's grandmother and for the rest of the child's family, to give out him to a foreign adoption against his will has been made in 2015 there. In the outcome of the attempt of handing the child out to the foreigners against his will and needs, the Polish court deprived Adam of his honest legal guardian and appointed the employee of the Adoption Agency, Ms Katarzyna Błocka-Ostapiuk, to be the new guardian of the child, and additionally the court has removed him from his foster family to put him into an emergency shelter for children when he started to object his foreign adoption perspective.

In November 2017 the child informed his grandmother that his guardian found "parents" for him. At that time the grandmother did not expect any adoption proceeding concerning him because he refused to be adopted and because he enjoyed his family ties with her, his mother and his siblings. Not until the first week of December 2017 came the grandmother to believe that there has been a "done deal" adoption proceedings initiated or even concluded. The new legal guardian of Adam refused to inform her about his legal situation.

In this situation the grandmother has immediately, on 18 December 2017, lodged her application for the admission of her participation in adoption proceeding and for hearing the witness statements as evidence in the adoption proceedings. She went to court and demanded explanation. Unfortunately no explanation has been given to her. The court refused even to inform her about the case number and the state of the proceedings.

On 19 December 2017 the grandmother was informed by the journalist of the Polish state TV (Telewizja Polska), who took an interest in the case, that it had been allegedly decided by the family court for the City of (Wrocław, Sąd Rejonowy dla Wrocławia-Śródmieścia) without her knowledge, that her grandson in few days will be forced to be adopted by a unknown persons, probably from Italy, and that there will be thrown a farewell party for her grandson and her on 21 December 2017.

The removal of Adam Krupiński from Poland should be considered a purposeful child abduction. As the grandmother observed, it was impossible for her to find any lawyer and a public support because of the timing of the action taken against her family on Christmas. For over 5 weeks the family had no contact or even sign of live from the child and was deceived by promises of a near meeting. Although the grandmother and her grandson had an unrestricted right to stay in contact and additionally to have a court guaranteed private meetings in grandmother's flat 2 times every month which should be organized for them and supported by the officials, the grandmother had no chance to see her grandson before his removal from Poland. She considers it to be an inhuman treatment of the child and his old grandmother, a torture. She called for an protecting order from the European Tribunal of Human Rights. She indicated that without the help of the Tribunal she has to expect that she will never see her beloved grandson before her death and that she will die never knowing what may be done to him and what fate he may suffer.

The farewell party cruelly announced to her on 19 December 207 and scheduled for 21 December 2017 did not take place. The grandmother did not knew until 23 December 2017 if the child was still in Poland.

The grandmother of Adam Krupiński, Ms Teresa as well as the supporting her organization Stowarzyszenie Wolne Społeczeństwo have been refused any access to the court files concerning the adoption proceedings. Both the grandmother and the organization have been also not allowed to gain information about the court's (Sąd Rejonowy dla Wrocławia Śródmieścia) decision on temporary protection for the child to stay in Poland which had been demanded by the grandmother last Monday. The court has been informed about the charges taken before the European Court of Human Rights.

On 21 December 2017 the grandmother did inform the public prosecutor (Prokuratura Rejonowa dla Wrocławia Krzyki-Zachód, ul. Powstańców Śląskich 161, 53-138 Wrocław, e-mail: krzyki-zachod:wroclaw.po.gov.pl) about the illegal court action of removing the child from Poland. The public prosecutor stated twice, on 21 and 22 December, that the grandmother will not be treated as an party in the proceedings concerning the removal and therefore she will have no right to see any files.

The organization and Ms Teresa informed the Polish court officials that the access of Ms. Teresa to the files concerning her grandson violates the obligation of the Republic of Poland to cooperate with the Tribunal. One of the court officials, the president of the second and highest instance court in Wrocław (Sąd Apelacyjny we Wrocławiu) commented that the European Court of Human Rights cannot do anything anyway. (The President of the Court of Appeal in Wrocław, Konrad Wytrykowski, pointed out that the European Court of Human Rights can only award damages.)