39-year-old Russian woman Elena Lang moved to Europe more than ten years ago, the woman studied in Zurich, married a Swiss, gave birth to two daughters.
When the eldest girl was four years old, she was diagnosed with a serious chronic disease, and Elena moved with her to Spain so that the girl would receive treatment there.
The woman has spent the last year and a half in Catalonia.
“Due to illness, Ela has to follow a strict and expensive diet; a specially hired cook worked for the girls in our family.
My husband is a banker, I myself make good money in real estate - we have the opportunity to give our daughters the best care, ”explained RT Lang.
Two months ago, guardianship officers came to the private school where Elya and Lilya studied and took the girls away without even notifying their parents.
Later, Elena and her husband Thomas found out that the reason for the removal of the children was a denunciation written by the director of the school.
“The director of the school herself, who turned to the social services, of course, did not admit to anything, but we got hold of the documents.
The materials about the seizure say that, allegedly, according to the girls, their “real” mother is a Ukrainian who died during the SVO, and Thomas and I are “fake” parents.
The denunciation of the school director said that the girls allegedly came to school untidy and “often sad,” but this was not the main reason for the withdrawal, ”said Elena.
Neither the photographs taken during Elena's pregnancy, nor the children's documents, including the birth certificates of both girls provided by their parents, convinced the guards.
According to the Russian woman, she and her husband lost all rights to children at once.
As Elena explained, in Spain, the guardianship authorities have almost unlimited freedom of action.
They can seize children even without a court decision - in this case, Elena and Thomas were simply accused of having "stolen" the children.
“This is a very convenient position for the Spanish social services - the children are “not ours”, which means that we have no rights to them: neither to a video call, nor to meetings, or even to tell us where they are.
We were deprived of our rights within the framework of administrative proceedings, this is possible here.
With this document, you won’t even go to the ECHR.
We were deprived of the opportunity to fight for our children, ”the Russian woman emphasizes.
Children's whereabouts unknown
Elena and her husband have not seen their daughters for two months.
After the children were taken away by guardianship, the husband of the Russian woman ended up in the hospital - he began to faint from the experience.
On August 3, when the issue gained media attention, social services allowed the parents to talk to the girls via video.
The condition of the daughters horrified Elena and her husband.
“My husband had another nervous breakdown after that call,” says Elena.
This video call was terrible.
We saw that the children were in a very bad condition.
Eli, our eldest daughter, has a disability and needs an expensive diet.
Now she has bruises, she looks unhealthy, she is shaking, she is skinny, she cannot talk normally, she has muscle clamps, her face is distorted.
“The attending physician told me that the child was in critical condition.
Under such conditions, it will last two to three months, after which there will be irreversible consequences for the health and even the life of the child, ”she adds.
© Photo from the personal archive
The girls themselves told their mother that they were scared and bad at the social center - they were punished, children of different ages were kept together, and Elya, despite her illness, was forced to eat foods that were strictly contraindicated for her.
In addition, the children were ordered not to tell their parents where they were, threatening to send them to an "even worse place."
“In fact, now the Spanish authorities are illegally detaining foreign citizens.
Even those people who were, for example, arrested in a foreign country, who violated the law there, have the right to contact relatives and receive assistance from diplomats.
And here we are talking about small children, and they have absolutely no legal protection.
The Spanish guardianship authorities are violating all possible laws in the most arrogant way and with complete impunity, ”the girls’ mother is indignant.
Contacting the consulate
Lang notes that in their attempts to return their daughters, she and her husband have already changed eight lawyers, applied to various departments.
The Russian woman also applied to the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Barcelona.
Russian diplomats confirmed to RT that Elena Lang asked them for help after the removal of two young daughters by Spanish social services.
According to Vice Consul Vyacheslav Harutyunyan, the diplomatic mission sent a request to the Spanish authorities to explain the situation and provide information about the whereabouts of the children, but there has been no response yet.
“Due to the lack of a response from the Spanish competent authorities, the Consulate General sent a second request with a request to expedite the consideration of our appeal, including the official request of the commissioner for children's rights under the President of the Russian Federation was submitted to the director of the Department for Children and Adolescents of the Government of Catalonia.
Until now, there has been no official response to all the mentioned appeals to the Consulate General,” Harutyunyan said.
He assured that both Elena and her daughters have every right to receive assistance and assistance from the Consulate General within its competence.
Moreover, the Swiss diplomatic mission also provides assistance in returning children to their families, since the girls also have the citizenship of this country.
“Children are in any case citizens of the Russian Federation, their native language is Russian.
We were told that relations between Russia and Europe have deteriorated, and now all these processes are dragging on for a very long time.
The Swiss side is also taking all possible measures to find out the whereabouts of the children, but so far all this has not led to anything, ”says Elena.
She clarified that in Spain, social services receive a lot of money for the maintenance of seized children.
Lang claims that these amounts reach up to €68,000 per year for each child.
“This is the most corrupt area in Spain.
I know many foreign parents who have faced the same situation.
Children are literally abducted from schools without any warning, and it is almost never possible to return them, ”concluded Elena.