Ensure release of NRI kids: Krishna to envoy in Norway

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Sunday instructed Indian Ambassador to Norway R K Tyagi to speak to the Norwegian foreign ministry to ensure the release of two children, who were separated from a Non-resident Indian couple by the Norwegian Childcare Services.

The minister is also likely to speak to his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Store on Monday demanding the release of the two children, official sources told PTI.

Krishna spoke to Tyagi during the day and asked him to contact the Norwegian foreign ministry to ensure the release of the two children, who were separated from their natural parents, an NRI couple, by the Norwegian Childcare Services which placed them under foster care. The matter has been pursued actively with Norwegian ministry of foreign affairs after the strong demarches that were made in Oslo and here on January 5, the sources said.

NRI couple Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya's children Abhigyan, 3, and Aishwarya, 1, were taken under protective care by Barnevarne (Norwegian Child Welfare Services, which claimed emotional disconnect with the parents, and placed them in foster parental care according to the local Norwegian court's directive.

On January 12, 2011, an official of the Indian embassy in Oslo visited the foster home where the young children are staying and ascertained that they were in good health, the MEA said in a release. Following the visit, the embassy reiterated the concerns of Indian government to the Norwegian ministry of foreign affairs that the children were being deprived of the undoubted benefits of being brought up in their own ethnic, religious cultural and linguistic milieu. Hence, the return of the children to India so that they can be brought up in familiar surroundings under the loving care of their extended family would be in their best long-term interests.