Hungarian foster parents who cared for a seriously ill six-year-old boy say they cannot understand why the country’s child protection authorities placed him for adoption in the United States – and they continue to fight for his return.
Tibike, who does not speak English, was handed over to American adoptive parents by Hungary’s child welfare system despite congenital health problems and multiple heart operations. His Hungarian foster family have been campaigning for him ever since, and the case has now been raised in the National Assembly. Officials cite an unusual provision of Hungarian law, but questions remain over whether sending the child to Texas – where he must be protected from excessive sunlight – was truly in his best interests.
Foster parents hoped to adopt the boy
While his Hungarian foster parents are still pursuing legal avenues to keep him, all indications suggest that Tibike has already been adopted by an American family. Yet numerous unresolved questions surround the case of the six-year-old, who lives with severe health complications.
Tibike had been living with Tamás Horváth and his wife for more than a year. Previously raised in a children’s home, he gradually formed a close bond with the couple, who wished to adopt him. Their application was rejected, however, on the grounds that the age difference between the child and at least one adoptive parent exceeded the legal limit by 15 months. They requested an individual assessment, but to no avail.
Under Hungarian law, the age gap between an adopted child and at least one adoptive parent may not exceed 50 years if the child is over three (or 45 years if younger). In the meantime, Tibike was placed on the international adoption list. According to his foster parents, foreign interest in him emerged in January, and by spring introductions had begun with a Texas-based family. In June, he was taken from the foster home for a 30-day bonding period. Horváth says he left for work that morning expecting the boy to return that evening; he never came back, and the family was not even allowed to say goodbye.
Since then, the foster parents say they have received scant information about the child’s condition, and claim they have not even been formally notified that their foster-care status has been terminated. By mid-July, however, the former guardian informed Dávid Dócs, an MP and deputy chairman of the Mi Hazánk party, that the adoption had gone through and that his own guardianship had ended.
Boy may already be in America
All this raises particular concerns because the Hungarian family’s adoption request was only formally rejected on 22 July. In other words, while the foster parents’ legal battle was still under way, the American adoption may already have been completed.
Tibike has undergone three heart surgeries and, owing to a genetic disorder, must be carefully shielded from sunlight. His foster parents therefore question what medical and psychological assessments preceded the decision. Was the boy’s strong attachment to his Hungarian family properly evaluated? Was due consideration given to the fact that he would be moved into a different linguistic and cultural environment, where his new parents do not speak Hungarian? And on what basis was Texas deemed suitable for a child in such a fragile state of health?
The Directorate-General for Social and Child Protection Services maintains that such decisions are the result of a lengthy process involving multiple specialists. It says Tibike’s health, attachments, views and long-term interests were all weighed, and that the boy is now safe and developing well in his new family.
The question, then, is not merely why Tibike was made available for adoption abroad. It is also how this could happen so swiftly, when a Hungarian family had already been raising him as their own for more than a year and wished to adopt him.
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Horváth has since resigned from his role in child protection, and the family is continuing its fight with the help of a family-law solicitor. Dávid Dócs raised the matter in Parliament, but received no answer from the Government at the time.
Child welfare service: boy is developing well in Texas
In an earlier response, the National Child Protection Specialist Service (OGYSZ) clarified that numerous factors are taken into account in adoption cases. According to that reply, the boy’s “integration is progressing favourably; he has undergone significant physical development, the bodily symptoms that previously caused problems have disappeared, he is increasingly relaxed in his new family, and several symptoms that previously indicated internal tension have eased or vanished. These are important signs that he is gradually feeling safe in his new environment.”
The OGYSZ press officer said the child’s attachments were developing well, and that breaking them and removing him again would cause further losses and trauma. On that basis, the institution does not expect to reach a different decision.
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