Seventy-three children brought home as part of 26 repatriation missions

Many Moldovan children remained without parental care in foreign countries during the last few years as a result of migration. Seventy-three children returned home as part of the 26 repatriation missions carried out in 2007, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communique from the Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Child. A special case was the story of two brothers aged 10 and 13, who several years ago were taken to Russia by their mother and later abandoned there. Meanwhile, they did not go to school. The minors went to the second and, respectively, third grade only after they were brought to a placement center in Russian by an unknown person. They have been repatriated to Moldova with the help of the Russian authorities and reintegrated into the extended family. A seven-year old boy remained alone after his mother native of Arkhangelsk town left home and went missing. The Russian and Moldovan authorities found the child’s father, who remarried in Moldova. He accepted the boy into his new family. After repatriated, the children are taken into care and the guardianship authorities look for the best protection forms for them. Five repatriation missions were conducted in 2007. Fourteen children were repatriated as part of them. Forty-four children were brought home as part of the 12 missions carried out last year. Fifteen children returned home this year. Seven of them were identified in Ukraine, six in Russia and by one in Sweden and Romania. Twelve children of those brought home during 2007-2009 are from the Transnistrian region. Thirty of the repatriated children were integrated into the biological or extended family. Seven children were adopted by Moldovan nationals, five were taken into care, two were placed in family-type children’s homes, while 29 were accommodated at temporary placement centers until a protection form is chosen for them. The missions were organized with the assistance of the Mission of the International Organization for Migration and the Representative Office of the Swiss Foundation Terre des Hommes. Moldovan-Russian consultations on the repatriation of abandoned children from Russia were held in December last year. It was agreed to draft a bilateral agreement to facilitate the repatriation process. The agreement is now being finalized. A similar agreement is being negotiated with Italy. In the second half of September, the Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Child plans to repatriate eight children identified alone in Russia.