Taken Children in France: How Social Services Destroy Bulgarian Families

The French child protection system unlawfully removes two Bulgarian children based on false denunciations, while their parents and civil organizations wage a desperate battle to return them to their homeland.

Seeking Treatment and the Trap of False Denunciations

A Bulgarian family travels to France with the primary goal of finding adequate treatment for their 10-year-old son Aycan, as the home healthcare system fails to resolve his serious health problem. The parents settle legally, with the father working on a permanent employment contract and paying taxes, while the mother stays at home to care for the children according to the traditions of their Muslim community. The children are enrolled in a French school just a month after arrival to begin their social integration.

The situation takes a tragic turn when a neighbor abuses the mother's trust and files an anonymous report on a child problems hotline. She constructs a false narrative before the school principal, claiming that the mother cannot care for Aylin and Aycan. The French social services act instantly and remove the children, using the absurd accusation that they do not speak French and communicate with signs, without taking into account the fact that the family has been in the country for only one month.

The Foster Care Industry in France

The French child protection system functions as an exceptionally powerful structure that often holds more power than the courts and the police. According to official data, over 300,000 children in France are currently removed from their biological parents. Alarmic statistics and expert reports indicate that between 63 and 70 percent of these cases are based on unlawful accusations and a complete lack of real evidence of abuse.

Foster care in the country has turned into a lucrative industry that generates massive financial flows for the participating parties.

• Foster families: Receive around 2,000 euros per month for raising a removed child.
• Regional administration: Absorbs up to 7,000 euros, frequently categorizing healthy children as disabled through false medical documents to justify higher funding.

Violated Rights and Physical Injuries

During the removal of Aylin and Aycan, fundamental human rights guaranteed by international legislation were violated. The parents were deprived of access to a public defender and a sworn translator during the critical first 48 hours, when the prosecutor's decision could have been appealed and halted. The mother was forced to sign documents in French without adequate translation, which represents a gross violation of administrative and judicial procedures.

Despite the explicit decision of the court of first instance that the children should stay together, social services separated them into different foster families under the pretext of a lack of available spots. They are subjected to severe psychological harassment, being explicitly forbidden from communicating in their native Bulgarian or Turkish languages.

The case escalated drastically when the boy suffered a severe physical injury during his stay in the foster system. The parents were kept in the dark and received only a photo of the child with a broken and casted arm, taken in a wooded area in front of a barbed-wire fence. The family's attempts to file a complaint with the French police regarding the incident ended with a flat refusal from the officers to accept the documents. Meanwhile, social workers are applying pressure to move the children outside the territory of France – toward Morocco or Great Britain, without the informed consent of their biological parents.

State Inaction and the Struggle of Citizens

The "ROD" Association and the Federation of the Bulgarian Cultural Community Worldwide have launched a large-scale legal and public campaign to save Aylin and Aycan. They are fighting a heavy battle in the French Court of Cassation but face serious obstacles even in gaining basic access to copies of the case file.

Despite this unprecedented situation, Bulgarian state institutions demonstrate complete inaction. The Bulgarian Embassy in Paris and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs refuse to intervene actively, justifying themselves by a lack of jurisdiction before the French social system. Activists demand that the state utilize the mechanisms of international law and request the repatriation of the minor Bulgarian citizens, whose relatives in Bulgaria offer excellent conditions for their upbringing. The family's defenders call on the entire Bulgarian nation to unite around this national cause, emphasizing that only strong public and institutional pressure can stop the arbitrary machine of foreign juvenile justice.