MP’s to launch enquiry over white girl placed with Muslim foster families

The little girl, aged five, who speaks English as her mother tongue, had been placed in two different Muslim households in the past six months. In one of the homes, the foster mother wore a niqab, while the in the other the mother wore a burka.

The Muslims forced her to remove her Christian crucifix necklace and she was not allowed to eat her favourite food, carbonara, because it contained bacon, according to a confidential report from the local authority leaked to the British daily, The Times

In one of the households, she was made to learn Arabic. Social services were made aware of her situation after she cried and pleaded not to go back to the family because “they don’t speak English”. In the reports, a social services worker described the girl as being “very distressed”.

A friend of the girl’s mother told The Sun: “This is a five-year-old white girl. She’s trapped in a world where everything feels foreign and unfamiliar. That’s really scary for a young child.”

Since her placement in Tower Hamlets, London, the little girl is said to have told her mother that “Christmas and Easter are stupid” and that “European women are stupid and alcoholic”, The Telegraph reported.

According to The Times, a Judge has ruled that it would be in the child’s best interests to live with a family member who will meet her needs “in terms of ethnicity, culture and religion”.

She ordered Tower Hamlets council in East London to conduct an urgent investigation into the case, which she called “very concerning” and a matter of legitimate public interest.

But Tower Hamlets council refuses to reveal why the fostering decision was made. A spokesman for the council said: “We are unable to comment on individual cases or those that are subject to court proceedings.” The London borough however complained about “inaccuracies” in the reporting by The Times.

It said the girl had been fostered in a temporary placement with an “English speaking” family of mixed race.

After the hearing at East London family court, the girl’s relatives expressed huge relief to have the girl back with them. She has been put in the care of her grandmother.

Neil Carmichael, the former Tory chairman of the Education Select Committee, had been leading an inquiry into fostering placements, but was cut short by the general election, after losing his seat on June 8.

He said: “That is not the sort of thing that we want to be seeing happening I would have thought. I think it is really important that young children are made to feel at home, made to feel comfortable, made to feel a fully fledged member of the family that they are in.

“They must be the key tests.”

A Department for Education spokesperson also said a child’s background should be an “important consideration” for authorities.

Local authorities are required to consider a child’s religion, racial origin, and cultural and linguistic background when placing within foster care.

Miqdaad Versi, the assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, tweeted indignation over the Times report: “Demonisation of the foreigner (especially the Muslim foreigner) is the clear undercurrent in this entire piece. It is appalling.”