A prominent article in last Sunday’s Guardian 500 children a year are adopted from UK includes the rather chilling phrase that this time of year is “peak abduction season”. This is because children are taken abroad during the summer holidays and not brought back at the beginning of the new school year.
The problem arises on the divorce or separation of parents of different nationalities. A high proportion of these involve Islamic countries, with fathers as the abducting party. Sharia law gives priority to male parents when considering rights as between a father and a mother, which makes it almost impossible for a mother to get her child back through the courts.
A remedy is more likely to be available if the destination country is a signatory to the Hague Convention. Many of the usual destination countries are not signatories. This is not a problem which is getting easier to solve, not least because marriages between UK nationals and non-UK nationals are increasing.
Lisa Bolgar Smith specialises in cases involving children, and specifically in abduction and trans-jurisdictional cases. Contact her on 020 7242 7000 and she will be pleased to try and help.
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