Child in Muslim foster care to go back to granny

A five-year-old Christian girl placed in foster care with a British Muslim family in east London will be returned to her own grandmother after a UK judge ruled on the case in a family court.

Judge Khatun Sapnara, a Bangladeshi-origin British Muslim herself, said on Tuesday that it was in the girl’s best interests to live with a family member who could keep her safe, promote her welfare and meet her needs “in terms of ethnicity, culture and religion”.

The case was first highlighted through media reports and triggered alarm over reports that the English-speaking girl had been forced to live with an Arabic-speaking family and that they had forced her to remove a necklace bearing a crucifix.

The UK’s Children’s Act 1989 requires a local authority to give consideration to “religious persuasion, racial origin and cultural and linguistic background” when making decisions about a child who has been taken into care as a result of a court order.

The Children’s Commissioner for England Anne Longfield had expressed concern over the case of the girl who cannot be legally identified, and said she would be contacting Tower Hamlets Council – the local authority involved in the case.

“I am concerned at these reports. A child’s religious, racial and cultural background should be taken into consideration when they are placed with foster carers,” Longfield said.

However, the council has claimed that the case has been misrepresented in the media and that the interests of the child had been taken into account.

“While we cannot go into details of a case that would identify a child in foster care, there are inaccuracies in the reporting of it,” said a spokesperson for Tower Hamlets Council.