A couple of days ago I posted a story of a foster couple in Italy who were refusing to send back their foster daughter to Belarus because of abuse they believe happened to her in the orphanage.

The foster couple wants to adopt the girl, but I don't know if they tried to adopt before this episode. The girl may not be available for adoption.

The story is causing a lot of controversy in both Italy and Belarus, and is causing tension between the two counties. However they seem to acknowledge that doing what is best for the little girl should come before politics.

Opps what was I thinking.

"Human understanding for the sentiments of the Giustis cannot take precedence over the institutional duty to intervene and resolve a situation which is deteriorating by the day," the minister said.

The situation they refer to is that there are over five hundred and fifty Italian adoptions pending from Belarus right now.

Five hundred and fifty adoptions in jepordy! Lets get this fixed folks.

But opposition Euro MP Aldo Patriciello, of the centrist, Catholic UDC party, called on the European Union to intervene .

"Europe cannot stand by and watch while the Belarussian authorities drag this child back to Belarus against her will... You can't ask a couple to foster a child which needs help and then prevent them from protecting that child," he said

Belarus sees this as an international incident.

"This child has been abducted," the ambassador said, adding that "the longer it takes for her to be released, the greater becomes our concern for her health".

He also obliquely suggested that the annual temporary adoption programme of which Maria was part could be jeopardized by the Giustis' actions.

Not a good situation for anyone involved.

Belarus offered medical help but the girls threatened suicide keeps foster parents from returning her to her home country:

ELARUS GIRL: AMBASSADOR PROPOSED JOINT TEAM OF DOCTORS
(AGI) - Genoa, Sept 13 - Trying to convince the foster parents of the 10 year old Belarus girl kept in Italy beyond the deadline for repatriation, the ambassador of the Belarus republic, Alexei Skripko, proposed the assistance of a joint team of doctors "granting international targets. In this way the girl will have a treatment no other Belarus child of her age has ever had. It is necessary that the girl is taken in her home country: staying in Italy is not doing her any good, nor is it to the other Belarus children not knowing today what is going to happen tomorrow". On the other hand, Alessandro Giusto, 31 years old, engineer, foster father of the girl, firmly refused this proposal in a telephone conversation: "This proposal was already made privately two weeks ago. The problem is the girl's tendency to self-destruction. She does not stop saying she is going to kill herself if we send her back home. We do not trust the guarantees given by Belarus authorities and the Italian government representatives should not trust them either". Giusto re-launched his offer to pay for a Belarus medical team supporting the Italian team in Italy. "We trust in an intervention in this sense by Italian diplomacy", he concluded.

What would you do?


photo credit on link below

Links to story here and here