Muslim foster girl: MPs call for probe
MPs demanded an urgent review last night after it emerged that a ‘distressed’ Christian five-year-old was forced to live with Muslim foster carers.
The Government was urged to examine the case, which has seen a scandal-hit council place the girl in two Muslim households in the past six months – against the wishes of her family.
Social workers said the child sobbed and begged not to be returned to one home, where her foster mother wore a face veil, as no English was spoken there.
She told council workers her foster carer had said she should learn Arabic and had taken away her Christian cross necklace, The Times reported. The child – who is white, was born in Britain and has a UK passport – was not allowed to eat a spaghetti carbonara prepared by her birth mother because it contained bacon.
She was said to have told her biological mother ‘European women are stupid and alcoholic’ and ‘Christmas and Easter are stupid’, prompting questions over cultural attitudes in her foster homes.
Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons education committee, yesterday urged the
Government to thoroughly examine the case.
It has emerged that the girl’s current foster mother wears a burka in public which completely hides her face.
The placements were arranged by Tower Hamlets council in east London, where children’s services were criticised by Ofsted earlier this year.
Inspectors rated the council’s children’s services ‘inadequate’ and said there was an ‘entrenched culture of non-compliance with basic social work standards’.
Last night, MPs said the five-year-old’s distress over her foster homes raised disturbing questions over the council’s decision to place an English-speaking Christian child in Muslim households.
Mr Halfon said it was important to establish whether the issue was widespread within the foster care system.
He said the child should ‘have the right to be placed with people who reflect her heritage and background’.
Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: ‘What if it were a Muslim girl being looked after by a Christian couple and they insisted she deny her Muslim upbringing and become a Christian – how would the Muslim community feel about that?
‘It seems to me the original heritage of the child ought to be respected by the foster family, whatever their own faith happens to be. The council needs to review this case urgently…All religions should be treated equally and respected in the same way.’
Andrew Bridgen, Tory MP for North West Leicestershire, said: ‘This just feels wrong. This is the wrong decision for the
‘Original heritage should be respected’ ‘She should be in a foster home where her religious and cultural background would be respected MP SHAILESH VARA YESTERDAY
long-term welfare of the child. My constituents will wonder what world they are living in in Tower Hamlets. It’s a council mired in crisis and controversy.
‘Someone needs to take a look at this. Just imagine the outcry from the Muslim community if this had been a Muslim child adopted by a white Christian family.’
Former justice minister Shailesh Vara, Tory MP for North West Cambridgeshire, said the decision was ‘completely wrong’, adding: ‘The local authority should have ensured that in placing the child in a foster home her religion and cultural background would be totally respected.
‘Moreover, there should be clear and unambiguous undertakings from potential foster parents that they will honour the beliefs of the children who are entrusted to their care.’
The girl’s biological mother was said to be horrified by her daughter’s foster placements and their effect on the child.
A family friend told The Times: ‘This is a five-year-old white girl. She was born in this country, speaks English as her first language, loves football, holds a British passport and was christened in a church.
‘She’s already suffered the huge trauma of being forcibly separated from her family. She needs surroundings in which she’ll feel secure and loved.
‘Instead, she’s trapped in a world where everything feels foreign and unfamiliar. That’s really scary for a young child.’
It was not clear why the girl was taken into care earlier this year, but councils are required to consider a child’s ‘religious persuasion, racial origin and cultural and linguistic background’ when deciding foster placements.
The girl was initially put in a household where her foster mother reportedly wore a niqab – a headscarf and face veil – in public.
Confidential council reports seen by The Times said the child begged not to be returned to the home because ‘they don’t speak English’.
A social services supervisor said she was ‘very distressed’ and said her foster carer had suggested she learn Arabic, had taken her cross necklace and had not allowed her to eat Italian food provided by her biological mother because it contained bacon.
The girl spent four months in that household before she was placed with a second foster carer who wears a burka when she accompanies the child in public. Mr Halfon, Tory MP for Harlow, added: ‘Anyone, whatever their religion or background, should be welcome as foster parents.
‘However, just as a Muslim foster child should have the right to be with a Muslim foster parent, if required by their family, so too should this child have the right to be placed with people who reflect her heritage and background.’ Neil Carmichael, former Tory chairman of the committee, was leading an inquiry into fostering but it was cut short by the general election. Mr Carmichael, who lost his seat on June 8, said the committee should restart the work and examine how children are placed.
‘I think it is really important that young children are made to feel at home, made to feel comfortable, made to feel a fully-fledged member of the family that they are in – they must be the key tests,’ he told the Daily Telegraph.
A Tower Hamlets spokesman said: ‘We are unable to comment on individual cases or those that are subject to court proceedings.
‘Tower Hamlets council’s fostering service provides a loving and stable home for hundreds of children every year … we give absolute consideration to our children’s background and to their cultural identity. All our foster carers receive training and support from the council to ensure they are fully qualified to meet the needs of the children in their care.’ The council’s website said it was recruiting foster carers, offering up to £471 per week per child in fees and allowances, depending on the child’s age. It previously warned it needed to recruit foster carers from a range of backgrounds. Adverts for foster carers in 2008 listed ‘white’ among under-represented communities.
The council would not reveal if it currently had a shortfall of white foster carers. The 2011 census found 31 per cent of Tower Hamlets’ population was white British, compared with 80 per cent nationwide.
In 2009, a Christian foster carer was banned by her local council after a Muslim teenager in her care converted to Christianity.
A Department for Education spokesman said local authorities must ensure a foster placement is ‘the most appropriate way to safeguard the child’ and that the child’s background was ‘an important consideration’. It has launched a ‘National Fostering Stocktake’, which will consider the recruitment and retention of carers and is expected to report back at the end of the year.