From the institution

Drama surrounding siblings: boy (11) runs away again

Symbolic image

(Bild: stock.adobe.com)

The case of three children who disappeared from their mother's home in Vienna in the course of a police operation is becoming increasingly confused: on Wednesday, one of the children - an eleven-year-old boy - reappeared accompanied by his father and was immediately taken to a child and youth welfare facility (MA 11). However, he disappeared from there again on Thursday ...

The eleven-year-old had shown from the beginning that he did not want to stay, said MA 11 spokeswoman Ingrid Pöschmann. In an unnoticed moment on Thursday afternoon, the boy ran away.

We do not lock children up and we must not hold them.

Ingrid Pöschmann, MA 11

"We don't lock children up and we're not allowed to hold them," explained Pöschmann. This is not legally possible and does not make educational sense. Instead, an attempt is made to start with conversations. The boy said that he wanted to see his father. The eleven-year-old and his father were noticed by police officers by chance on Wednesday evening. The two were stopped, the boy was handed over to MA 11 and the father was questioned and then released.

The disappearance of the children was the result of a failed child abduction the previous week. The mother had probably had the children in her care for seven months despite the temporary withdrawal of custody. The 13-year-old, the 11-year-old and a four-year-old had no structured daily routine and no suitable home for the children due to the mother's excessive demands, and they had only attended school irregularly, it was said.

There had been several reports of endangerment, and the 38-year-old had also turned to the authorities herself for help.

"It is important that the father works with us"
Pöschmann said on Friday whether the four-year-old could now possibly stay with his father, "we have to check". The two fathers of the three children have not yet been available to the child and youth welfare services. "It is important that the father cooperates with us," emphasized the MA-11 spokeswoman. Even if parents give their children who have been taken away the feeling that "it's not good where you are now", the children cannot support this, she said about the disappearance of children from the crisis centers, which fortunately is generally rare.