By: SANNE FAHNØE
7 April 2016
‘Mercy Mercy – adoption price of a child’, depicted in 2012 Masho’s hard life in Denmark after being adopted from Ethiopia. Photo: Fridthjof Film Photo: Fridthjof Film
The Ethiopian parents of the adopted girl Masho, who in 2008 was adopted from Ethiopia by Danish parents are very happy that an Ethiopian court has now cancelled the adoption.
They’ve just been told of the decision and their legal representative Arun Dohle (ACT) says now to BT that it is a breakthrough for the parents.
“I have not even talked to them yet, but I know that they have been informed of the decision an hour ago, and I’m sure they are very happy about it,” he says.
The case of Masho exploded in 2012 as a documentary on TV2 depicted how the Danish adoptive couple Henriette and Gert Vedsegaard found it difficult to handle Masho’s violent reactions to being torn away from her family in Ethiopia. Masho was then removed from the Danish parents and send to an institution.
While the unhappy biological parents back in Ethiopia felt like victims of what they perceived as child harvesters who had promised them contact with Masho after the adoption. But the deal has not materialized. The parents even said yes to adoption when they were infected with HIV, but now they are doing much better because of treatment with new drugs and want contact with their daughter.
Arun Dohle working for the organization Against Child Trafficking has had regular contact with the parents in Ethiopia, to whom contact was promised with Masho when she was adopted away. Yet they have not talked to her or seen her for several years in Holbaek Municipality.
“The Parents have had it absolutely terrible. They have no idea how their daughter is doing. They have rung continuously the caseworker and are very worried. They feel cheated because she lacks a family, but we don’t even know how she feels. In my eyes the municipality mistreats Masho, “he says.
“She has had a life with these parents. A language and a great family. Why should she not talk to them? “He asks.
Now he will on behalf of the parents meet with Holbaek Municipality next week in the wake of the decision to see if they will cooperate. If not, they will sue for the right to at least make contact with Masho, but perhaps also in order to get her back to Ethiopia.
Also, another Ethiopian girl Amy Steen’s adoption has been cancelled. She was also adopted to Denmark like Masho, but is 15 years old today. She is back in Ethiopia and intends to stay there.
BT has tried to get a comment from Mashos Danish adoptive parents, but they have not yet responded to the invitation.
