The drama currently faced by an Argentine mother and her five-year-old daughter in Helsinki, Finland, was not unexpected. As documented by Total News Agency (TNA) in previous publications, the decision for the child's restitution was made despite warnings about the mother's vulnerable situation, the lack of a consolidated bond between the child and her father, and the history of gender-based violence reported in Europe. In 2020, during the pandemic, the woman returned to Argentina so her daughter could be born in the country. She later returned to Europe, but it was there that, according to her testimony, episodes of violence began, leading her to seek refuge in shelters for women in extreme situations. The definitive breakup of the couple occurred in 2021. The father's legal recognition was established later on Argentine territory, initiating a judicial process that culminated in an order for the international restitution of the child to her biological father, a resident of Finland. However, according to the mother, after the child was returned to Finland, none of the court-mandated conditions were met: no adequate housing was provided, no food security, and no medical assistance. Mother and daughter were left in a state of abandonment. "We are in a situation of homelessness," she stated. The child reacted to the reunion with her father by crying and rejecting him. Furthermore, all of the girl's medical treatments were interrupted. The mother maintains that her bond with the father is practically non-existent. This case was handled by the National Civil Court No. 86, presided over by Dr. Bacigalupo de Girard. The court's ruling specified that the restitution was conditional upon fulfilling several requirements both before and after the transfer: adequate housing, food coverage, comprehensive medical care for the child, and protective measures. However, once the restitution was carried out, none of these guarantees were materialized, as the mother herself denounced. Eventually, alternative state-funded accommodation was arranged, but without income, food provisions, or healthcare coverage. TNA emphasizes that the outcome was, regrettably, the one that had been predicted: a forced restitution executed without effective control over the fulfillment of conditions, leaving a child and her mother exposed to extreme precariousness abroad.
