'UK forced adoption punishes parents for no reason'
‘Punishing people for crime they have not committed is wrong’, campaigner insists
A British businessman who lives in France is one of several people who regularly help women to flee the UK to give birth abroad and keep their babies.
Ian Josephs told Connexion he got involved after learning of a woman’s case while he was a county councillor in Kent.
He receives several calls a day after women contact him through his website (forced-adoption.com). He gives advice and pays for the mothers to leave the UK.
They mainly travel to France or Spain. Ireland is another destination.
Mr Josephs, 87, said: “Every woman should be given the chance to raise her child. While they are still pregnant, they can leave the country.
“The UK system is totally unfair: it is based on what may potentially happen in the future. In what other circumstances is someone judged for a crime they have not committed?
“People can’t believe it if I say one reason given for a child to be removed is a potential future risk of emotional abuse.
“People say I may be helping people who go on to abuse a child but we are talking about predictions. The women cannot hide their birth in the new country and they enter into the system there. They don’t go off the radar.”
He says adoption is pushed in the UK as it represents a billion-pound industry, and social workers come under pressure to place children into new families.
Once children are taken into care, he adds, phones and laptops are routinely confiscated to isolate them from family. Parents can visit in supervised situations but are forbidden to discuss the possibility of coming home, court proceedings or abuse suffered in care.
Mr Josephs said: “Jailed murderers are treated better… Hardened criminals can phone out and discuss anything they want with visiting family and friends.
“The ironic fact is that the children are much more likely to come to harm in foster homes than with their mothers.”
He says the law must change so that children can only be taken away if a parent has been convicted of a serious crime against children.
Freedom of speech should also be given back to the parents, who are under gagging orders, he said.
“Nobody knows about this in the UK because nobody can speak about it,” he added.
