At the end of the meeting, when a child of almost five years old had to be returned to his maternal uncles, with whom he has been placed since April last year, the mother did not show up for the appointment. The search for the woman and the child, both Gambian citizens, is therefore underway by the Police, under the coordination of the Aosta Prosecutor’s Office.
The meeting was scheduled for late yesterday morning, Thursday 6 June, in the center of Aosta. It was expected to last about three hours, but in the early afternoon, upon the return of the relatives (with whom the child has lived for more than a year) and the educator, there was no trace of the mother.
The child had been removed from his parent, and was then entrusted to the local social service, then placed with his maternal uncles (even though the mother did not lose parental rights). The meeting, authorized by the Juvenile Court, was scheduled took place with the presence of the educator at the beginning and end of the coursebut the woman would have taken advantage of it and it is not excluded that she had the aim of going abroad.
The words of the Health Department
In an evening note, the Health Department explains: “Starting from the end of March 2023, the situation is followed by ateam multidisciplinary (educator, social worker, psychologist and intercultural mediator) upon mandate from the Juvenile Court. In April 2023 the Court ruled the placement of the child with the maternal uncles and the activation of protected visits and did not provide for the suspension of parental responsibility for the mother”.
“Starting from March 2024 – we read again -, the Juvenile Court has ordered a gradual liberalization of meetings between the minor and the mother. As part of this latest provision of the Juvenile Court, the meetings were currently accompanied by an educator both at the beginning and at the end of the same”.
“I am therefore the news that appeared in the press was inaccurate – closes the note -, as on the one hand the uncles they were not custodians of the childbut the same was placed with them, and on the other as the abduction of the minor did not occur during a protected meeting, but a free meeting between mother and son, in compliance with what was established by the Court”.
Finally, “the Department hopes a quick discovery of the childin the superior interest of the well-being and serenity of the child”.
