A girl at the centre of a care dispute was removed from her Muslim foster parents yesterday and reunited with her family as a judge urged councils to seek \u201cculturally matched placements\u201d for vulnerable children.<\/p>\n
The five-year-old, a native English speaker from a Christian family, was taken to her grandmother\u2019s home after a court ruled that she should not remain in the placement organised by the London borough of Tower Hamlets.<\/p>\n
Judge Khatun Sapnara, a practising Muslim, said it was in the girl\u2019s best interests to live with a family member who could keep her safe, promote her welfare and meet her needs \u201cin terms of ethnicity, culture and religion\u201d. The judge ordered the council to conduct an urgent investigation into issues reported by The Times, saying that the newspaper had acted responsibly in raising \u201cvery concerning\u201d matters of \u201clegitimate public interest\u201d.<\/p>\n