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Two British social workers have accused New Zealand's child protection agency of "gross professional incompetence", including unnecessarily ripping children from their mother's arms without any idea where to place them.
The men, recruited by Child, Youth and Family Services last year, have resigned in protest at the "unethical practices".
One, Manurewa social worker Jonny Ward, 35, sent his criticisms to CYFS minister Ruth Dyson and has been invited to brief her officials. He plans to return to Britain. The other man, 27, is unwilling to be named as he works for another agency and does not want to risk his registration.
They said standards fell far short of what they were used to. Mr Ward said he took part in removing children from a family last week with another social worker, eight police and two dog handlers.
The other social worker tried to stop the mother cuddling her son when she tried to comfort him.
The children were eventually placed with their grandmother.
"We could have spoken to the grandmother beforehand and told the children, 'It's okay, you know your grandmother'. Instead we had them in the back of the car, all three of them crying because they didn't know where I was taking them."
In Britain, he said, social workers tried to get the parents' agreement to a removal, or at least pack the children's belongings and make sure any health needs were known.
The Ministry of Social Development official in charge of CYFS, Ray Smith, said local practice placed more emphasis than Britain on keeping children within the extended family, which could mean searching for family members if children had to be removed in an emergency.
