A Dutch doctor and his wife, who claim to have been unfairly accused of child neglect, have found asylum in Poland after Dutch and Belgian authorities threatened to take their four children away.
A Polish court revoked the European arrest warrant (EAW) issued against Dr. Leonard Hermans by Belgian police. The evidence, as presented by the Belgian side, which alleged a “disturbing” situation for the children, had been deemed unpersuasive.
Now safely under the Polish government’s protection, the family’s case was presented at a press conference in Poland’s justice ministry on August 31st. Speaking at the conference, Leonard Hermans said that, unlike the Netherlands, where he and his family were “persecuted,” Poland, which took them in, struck him as a “hot shower.”
The Netherlands, he continued,
takes the lead [within the context of the EU] in punishing Poland for its rule of law violations. Yet, while the Netherlands points the finger at Poland … violates the rights of children and parents every day.
He concluded:
We have suffered tremendous financial and emotional damage because of this. But it is worth it to us since we still have our children.
“Mr. Hermans and his children are the best proof that Poland is a country of freedom, where the welfare and safety of families come first,” said Michał Wójcik, a member of the Council of Ministers who was present at the conference.
Deputy Justice Minister Marcin Warchoł said that the case was further evidence that Poland is a country that takes family policy seriously and protects it. He clarified that while real abuse is tackled, Poland does not take children from their parents on the basis of spurious or anonymous claims, or because of financial problems a family may face.
An optician by trade, Leonard Hermans and his wife, a lawyer, run a real estate business and have four children aged 7-15.
Their woes started when Herman’s sister contested the divvying up of a family inheritance. In an act of retaliation, she gave out the name of Dr. Herman’s wife to the Veilig Thuis, the official body in the Netherlands that receives and acts on reports of domestic violence and child abuse.
The parents were denied access to the case file. Meanwhile, authorities decided to place the children in foster care.
Unable to contest the decision—a judgment the family deems an example of government overreach—the Hermans migrated to Germany and then Belgium, where they were tracked down by authorities. Upon receiving a summons to appear in the Belgian family court, the parents fled to Poland.
They were then tried in absentia and sentenced to four years in prison for having ‘kidnapped’ their children.
According to the Catholic website Info Vaticana, the Dutch family’s case is not an isolated one.
Sources, among which are journalists and the Polish government, confirmed to the Catholic news outlet that there has been an uptick in families, particularly from northern European countries, who are seeking refuge in Poland because in their home countries rules regarding child rearing are too strict.
In some of these countries, the report continues, children are “taken away for ideological reasons or because of poverty or based on anonymous reports received by these countries’ officials which are never verified. So if someone wants to hurt parents, they can say that they are hurting their children.”
