European Court Condemns Hungary for Removal of Romani Child from Family
12 June 2025
Brussels, Budapest 12 June 2025 – In a ruling delivered on 10 June 2025, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found that Hungarian authorities had violated the rights of a Romani family by forcibly separating a mother from her newborn son immediately after birth without sufficient legal or social justification. The case, B.T. and B.K.Cs v. Hungary was brought before the Court by the affected parents with joint legal support from the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) and the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU). The ruling highlights the flaws in the Hungarian child protection system, which continues to disproportionately target Romani families.
“This case is about a system that punishes Romani families for being poor and for being Roma,” said Vivien Brassói, Legal Director of the ERRC. “Removing Romani children from their families without a legal or social cause is not child protection. It is institutional discrimination and abuse. The judgment is a welcomed development, as it highlights the serious flaws in the decision-making process in this case. However, it is disappointing that the Court did not acknowledge the broader, systemic issue of Romani children in Hungary being disproportionately placed in institutional care, often as a result of ethnic discrimination.”
Background
On 3rd May 2014, Ms. B. T., a Romani woman living in the village of Kesznyéten, gave birth to her son in a public hospital in Miskolc. Just three days later her baby was forcibly removed from her, with no explanation or legal decision justifying the separation ; an all-too-common occurrence for Romani families in Hungary. The local health visitor recommended the separation, stating that the family's other children had also been taken into care. This was deliberately misleading, as by this time they had already returned two of the family’s children (while others had still not yet been returned). On 7th May 2014, the local Guardianship Authority decided to suspend the parental rights of both parents and ordered the child’s temporary placement in foster care, citing the mother's “irresponsible lifestyle” and her past social challenges. A formal decision was only issued six days after the removal, retroactively authorizing the child’s placement into temporary state care.
The authorities took the most extreme measure without exploring any less intrusive alternatives, such as support services or family assistance programmes. The removal occurred in a broader context of anti-Romani discrimination, including a documented pattern of disproportionately removing Romani children from their families in that region. According to the 2011 ERRC research, 58% of the children interviewed in state care institutions were of Romani origin, while the proportion of Romani children in the entire Hungarian child population was estimated to be 13%.
Despite later improvements in the family’s housing, employment, financial situation, and their active efforts to regain custody of their children, the authorities continued to justify the child’s removal based largely on outdated concerns. Domestic courts rejected all appeals and ignored allegations of ethnic discrimination. In September 2016, after extended legal and administrative efforts, the child was returned to his family, two years after his birth. His siblings, also previously removed, have rejoined the family and are excelling in school and work. However, the trauma of the separation had lasting psychological scars on both the child and the parents.
European Court Case
“The unlawful child removal practices affecting the Hungarian Romani population living in deep poverty are a systemic problem. Although legal representation to the parents was offered and the decision ordering the removal was appealed, the second-instance authority upheld the decision. Therefore, a judicial review of the second-instance ruling was requested at the Miskolc Administrative and Labour Court. Neither the first-instance court nor the Kúria accepted the arguments, which led the case before the European Court of Human Rights,” explained Ilona Boros from the HCLU.
The European Court of Human Rights found that the domestic authorities violated Article 8 (right to respect for family life) of the Convention in their handling of the placement of the Romani newborn baby in temporary State care immediately after birth. The authorities failed to carry out a genuine balancing exercise between the interests of the child and those of his biological parents. The authorities were unable to properly justify this severe measure and therefore the Court considered it unjustified. The Court also noted that there was an absence of in-depth and careful assessment of the situation, neglecting both short-term and long-term aspects affecting the baby’s welfare and decisions were unfairly influenced by the mother's past challenges during her pregnancy and towards her other children, rather than a current evaluation of her capacity to care. The procedural deficiencies deprived the mother of adequate involvement in decisions concerning her child's care, leading to a disproportionate interference with both her and her newborn baby’s right to respect for their family life.
The ERRC & Hungarian Civil Liberties Union are disappointed in the Court for missing the opportunity to find violation of Article 14. According to the applicants and their representatives, the breach of their rights was a result of their Romani origin. In particular, the health visitor had made several hostile comments concerning the mother’s ethnicity and the Child Protection Authority was also known among the local Romani community to have made it clear that Romani children in Kesznyéten “would not be allowed home”. Research carried out by the European Roma Rights Centre also showed that a disproportionate number of Romani children have been placed in institutional care in Hungary during this period. However, the Court concluded that the information was not sufficiently strong to decide that the conduct of the hospital staff or the domestic authorities was intentionally racially motivated.
This press release is also available in Hungarian.
For more information or to arrange an interview, contact:
Jonathan Lee
Advocacy & Communications Director
European Roma Rights Centre
jonathan.lee@errc.org
+32 49 288 7679
Vivien Brassói (in Hungarian)
Legal Director
European Roma Rights Centre
vivien.brassoi@errc.org
+36 30 225 7568
Ilona Boros (in Hungarian)
Director, Equality and Autonomy Program
Hungarian Civil Liberties Union
boros.ilona@tasz.hu
+3630 522 8168
