New Delhi: The Indian government has called upon German authorities to repatriate Ariha Shah, a girl of a Gujarati family who has been placed in foster care in Germany.

“India has persistently been calling for the return of Ariha Shah, an Indian national. We have been requesting Germany to repatriate the child. India has been advocating for consular access to the child and cultural immersion,” stated Arindam Bagchi today during the weekly press briefing of the Ministry of External Affairs.

Both the Ministry of External Affairs and the Embassy of India in Berlin have consistently campaigned for the return of Ariha Shah.

Ariha Shah is the daughter of  Bhavesh and Dhara Shah from Ahmedabad who were working as a software engineer in Germany on a work visa. In September 2021, the German authorities removed the child from their custody.

According to the parents, the child’s grandmother accidentally injured her, later when they took their child to the hospital, it was discovered that she had suffered a genital injury. The hospital informed the German government, resulting in the child being taken away. Although the German authorities closed the sexual assault case against the parents without filing charges, they did not return their child to them.

For more than a year and a half, Ariha has resided in foster care, having been separated from her parents when she was only seven months old. Since then, the couple has been permitted to meet her only once every 15 to 20 days.

The parents revealed that there were more than 50,000 children who had been separated from their families and placed in foster care. They also mentioned the case of a Romanian family who, after a lengthy legal struggle, managed to regain custody of their seven children in 2020. The parents highlighted that families of various nationalities were facing similar problems.

Last week, Ariha’s mother, Dhara Shah, met with Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel regarding the same issue. The CM assured her that the state would provide all the necessary assistance and would also seek the attention of the union government to secure the return of Gujarat’s daughter. DeshGujarat