The German couple who hosted children in Gozo, some of whom were reported missing in Germany or were under care orders, had urged German families whose “interest is to take their children to safety” to flee the “anti-child system” in their country and to seek new pastures in Malta by turning to them for assistance.

This emerges from the content of the Chalk Circle Foundation’s website manned by the founders, German couple Sonja and Marcus Bergfeld, certain content of which has since been removed after the case of two German mothers and their children – who were reported missing in Germany but were discovered in Gozo – came to light.

One of the mothers, 30-year-old Sabrina Albrecht, appeared before Magistrate Joanne Vella Cuschieri and was charged with abandoning her son after he was found walking alone in a field near their Marsalforn flat.

When contacted on Friday, Mr Bergfeld said that the content was removed because the German authorities are claiming that the foundation was trafficking humans, and the foundation is in talks over formally registering the foundation as an NGO in Malta.

Retrieved website documentation in possession of this newsroom read: “If your children are ‘prisoners’ of the department for the welfare of children, take them and go to Malta.”

Police who were investigating the Marsalforn discovery had reportedly said that it was, in fact, not a case of child abduction.

According to information received from Germany and reported widely in the media, the two mothers fled the country together with their children. One of the children was placed under a care order by the German authorities but despite this, his mother fled to Malta with her child. It is understood they did so because they feared the state would take the children away.

A court case is underway in Malta. Two of the children (the children of Ms Albrecht) have since returned to Germany after a German social worker abducted the children from the Malta’s child welfare agency Appogg.

This newsroom is informed that a German social worker by the name of Eva Maria came to Malta to replace another German social worker who had been caring for the children in Malta, along with Maltese care workers, until the court case is concluded. But when Maltese social workers entrusted the children to the German social workers for a few hours, Eva Maria seized the opportunity and fled with one of the children back to Germany.

On Friday, a Gozitan court ruled that proceedings to immediately bring back two of the children discovered to be living in Gozo, the children of Ms Albrecht, Jayden and Jeremias, since, the court ruled, they had been taken away illegally.

Initially, this newspaper had drawn a comparison between the cases involving children reported missing back in Germany and who were found by Gozitan police and the case of a German woman, Petra Nemet, who was arrested outside the Zabbar home of her former German partner after she turned up with a television crew to see their three-year-old son – who she had abducted last year but was arrested by Warsaw police on the Polish border. She was found to be carrying a passport of their child which did not bear the full surname of the couple’s son.

She had been filmed being arrested by Maltese police outside her former partner’s home. Her partner had been granted full custody of their son by a Maltese court. After she was arrested, her laptop and mobile phone were taken by the police for further investigations.

This newsroom is informed that those items are still in the police’s possession.

Following our story, things started to take a new twist. Sources that approached this newsroom after reading our report handed over retrieved website documentation that had been removed from the foundation’s website.

The website still contains an email address and a Malta-based fixed line and mobile number. But the excerpt which states that it was founded in 2011 as a charitable organisation, and is recognised by the Maltese government has been deleted for reasons which are explained further in this article.

The names listed in this particular homepage – which include Sonja Bergfeld, Markus Bergfeld, a Maltese lawyer and Kerstin Hlawatsch – have also been deleted.

The site still states that one can benefit from Malta’s legal system once here with their children but states that details can only be discussed in private, giving the false impression that Malta is the only country in the EU without a properly functioning child protection department.

However, despite the claim that the foundation is recognised by the Maltese authorities, the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations confirmed that the foundation, which claims to be a charitable organisation, is not registered in Malta and therefore is not recognised by Malta.

An excerpt which is still active reads: “Leave Germany so the government can no longer possess your children”.  The website also promotes Malta as a sun and sea destination, and features footage of Maltese ‘luzzus’, various scenic views of the islands, and village festas.

One of the website pages explains that the Bergfeld family believes that the department for the welfare of children in Germany took their five children away and placed them in homes. The website further reads that the authorities used the excuse that the mother has the Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSP), since, according to the Bergfelds, neither the department for children in Germany, nor the doctors, court or medical experts could find a valid reason enough to take their children away from them.

MSP, a type of factitious disorder, is a mental illness in which a person acts as if an individual he or she is caring for has a physical or mental illness when the person is not really sick for financial gain. The adult perpetrator has MSP and directly produces or lies about illness in another person under his or her care, usually a child under six years of age. It is considered a form of abuse by the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. However, cases have been reported of adult victims.

 

Website homepage

The homepage originally read: “We are helping families who want to emigrate because of the department for the welfare of children (Jugendamt in German). It is the only solution in such an anti-children system. We want to help families who want to take their children to safety. We are taking families and helping them to find jobs in the beginning, a place to live, school and kindergarten and clothing and also help with the local authorities.

“Please let us know your experience with the department for children and the reason why you want to emigrate as well as to what extent you need help. We will then answer in what way we can to help you.”

 

The founders

This page tells the story of the Bergfelds to those making use of the site. It includes the part where the Munchausen syndrome by proxy is mentioned.

If one dug deeper before certain content was removed from the site, one of the website pages gave advice to those who encountered a similar situation as the Bergfeld’s (in that the department took the children into custody and placed them in homes).

The website read: “If your children were ‘prisoners’ of the department for children, take your child and go to Malta.

“If your children are in a home, the only possibility is to get the children and go abroad, because I bet that your court judgment is not according to the European laws and then it is easier to take legal action while overseas for international child kidnapping.”

The foundation states that it is also open to donations. And this is where a German lawyer, Kai Jochimsen, who resides in Malta, comes into the picture. The lawyer, whose name and surname are displayed on one of the website’s pages, states: “Please donate to children to help them experience a happy childhood.” An account number at a branch of a Maltese bank also features on the web page. The German lawyer claims to be the holder of the bank account.

The bank, when contacted, did not confirm nor deny that the account exists in Dr Jochimsen’s name.

The Malta Chamber of Advocates website warns that this same lawyer is not a registered lawyer in Malta, advising individuals not to enter in any extra judicial work with him since the lawyer may be engaging in such work. One can view the Chamber’s warning on http://www.avukati.org/news_detail.aspx?id=263197.

The warning was issued in 2011, and it has been confirmed by the Justice Ministry in Malta that the lawyer in question is still not registered to practice as a lawyer according to Maltese law to this very day.

This same lawyer had dealt with a number of cases involving German nationals in Malta. One such case involved a 20-year-old German student who had died suddenly in Malta in October 2009.

 

More Germans in Malta after ‘fleeing’ the Jugendamt

This newsroom is informed that there are more German nationals in Malta who did not use the ‘services’ of the Bergfelds but are here to ‘escape’ the German child welfare system and who believe that they could have easily lost custody of their children had they not fled to Malta.

While some sources have told this newsroom that the Judendamt treated their case in a fair manner, there are mixed online reports that the department for the welfare of children in Germany acts in a way that is above the law, with reports of children being taken away in SWAT-style raids, others brought to financial ruin by huge fines, or parents simply thrown into jail.

Suggestions have also been made to this newsroom that there may exist a risk whereby children  who are taken away by the Jugendamt and placed in children’s homes and foster homes could easily end up being ‘legally trafficked’ eventually.

Back in 2011, European Parliament members had begun an investigation into the conduct of Germany’s “notorious” youth office, the Jugendamt, since over the years a number of stories of several German families persecuted by the Jugendamt, often because they were homeschoolers (parents or legal guardians who choose to educate their own children at home), came to light. As a result, a number of homeschoolers fled their native country.

An online CBN News report also went as far as stating that Jugendamt can take children from good families when it wants and ignores court rulings to return them, which can very well be the reason why the Bergfelds may have set up this kind of network to help German families who are or were victims of the Jugendamt.

 

Appogg deeply concerned

Appogg told this newsroom that it is extremely concerned about the fact that had a child missing in Germany not been found roaming a field in Gozo by chance, nobody would have ever known that there were mothers and children living in an apartment in Marsalforn with children who were reported missing in Germany. It would have never been revealed that some of the children were placed under care orders either.

Turning to the foundation run by the Bergfelds, Appogg said that the local agency never even knew about their existence, let alone their Gozo operation.

The agency said it is adamant that it will not cooperate with any entity which is working to evade the child protection and child welfare system of another country which is either an EU state or a signatory to The Hague Convention.

This newsroom also contacted the police in Ms Albrecht’s hometown of Gera, Germany about the case, but they referred us to the Thuringian Ministry of Social, Family Affairs and Health. We are still awaiting their replies.

The police said: “For any information to the case or issues with cross-border implications, the responsibility lies in the hands of the respective ministry.”

The German Embassy in Malta meanwhile referred this newsroom to the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Berlin who in turn said that the Chalk Circle Foundation is not known to the Embassy.

Follow up article tomorrow (Monday)

Read follow up article in tomorrow's (Monday) edition of the Malta Independent.