Italy blocks return of evacuated Ukrainian children: Kyiv denounces forced adoptions
Italian courts are preventing the return of hundreds of Ukrainian minors evacuated to Italy following the Russian invasion. Kyiv accuses Rome of obstructing cooperation and compares the situation to the deportation of children to Russia.
Italy blocks return of evacuated Ukrainian children: Kyiv denounces forced adoptions
Italian courts are preventing the return of hundreds of Ukrainian minors evacuated to Italy following the start of the Russian invasion in 2022. The situation has provoked a serious humanitarian and legal crisis, with direct accusations from the Kyiv government against Rome for obstructing cooperation.
One of the most controversial cases is that of 15-year-old Sasha, evacuated in 2022 from a children's home in Sumy together with his sisters. This year, an Italian court approved his adoption by a local family, despite his biological mother in Ukraine demanding his return. His two sisters were returned to Ukraine, but Sasha remains in Italy.
The Ukrainian ombudsman for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, accused Italy of refusing cooperation with Ukrainian authorities and preventing Kyiv from verifying the conditions of minors. Lubinets compared the situation to the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, which Moscow denies, calling them evacuations for security reasons.
The minors arrived in Italy after the invasion began, when they were transferred from Ukrainian institutions and facilities to safe areas across Europe. Liubov Rudika, director of the Sumy centre, stated that she had believed the children would go only temporarily, as if to a summer camp, but soon Italian authorities began appointing new guardians and treating the minors as unaccompanied foreign nationals.
Italian legislation, tightened during the migration crisis a decade ago, prohibits the return of unaccompanied minors except in exceptional cases approved by a judge. For this reason, according to denunciations by Ukrainian authorities, Kyiv has practically lost the ability to decide the fate of its own children.
Italian lawyer Rosa Emanuela Lo Faro, who represents some of the Ukrainian minors, stated that some children have been completely separated from their guardians and families in Ukraine. She emphasised that in some cases, Italian foster families have exerted pressure on courts for minors to remain in Italy, arguing that they would be safer there than in a Ukraine at war.
According to data from Ukrainian authorities, over 4,800 children from institutions and facilities were evacuated from Ukraine to European countries in 2022. Kyiv maintains that the return of more than 300 minors is currently blocked by decisions of local authorities, particularly in Italy, Germany and Austria. The case has raised serious questions about the limits of humanitarian protection, parental rights and the role of European states in the fate of children evacuated from conflict zones.
Source: Večernji list (https://www.vecernji.hr/vijesti/ukrajina-bijesna-na-italiju-talijanski-sudovi-odbijaju-vratiti-ukrajinsku-djecu-iz-rata-1968481)
Source: Večernji list