ABP World Group Ireland

The truth behind Parental Child Abduction in Egypt

2012-02-26T16:11:00.000Z

In May 2009 I took my precious baby to see her father in Egypt, One week later our lives were turned upside down. My ex husband had kidnapped my baby.
For three years I have gone through Courts, Embassies, Ministers, Police and egyptian lawyers.

I was able to get my baby back after 8 months on condition I live in Egypt, but life would not be easy.
I lived with death threats, constant cases cropping up all over the country and four corrupt lawyers.

At the end for the safety of my baby i was forced to sign an agreement or lose my baby for ever. This agreement was that my baby was to live with her father and i get to have her for all school holidays, I could visit her as and when i wanted and she would get the best education possible.
Two school holidays have passed and I have not been allowed to have my baby, she was not put into school at all but a farming community nursery.

My only access to my baby is a phone call every three days that i have to fight for some times a week will go by and my ex will not answer my calls.

Having gone through death attacks, being beaten in front of authorities and constant fear of losing full contact with my baby, and eventually being forced into a contract that is meaningless.
I have decided to get back in the ring and fight again, I cannot leave my baby in the hands of a person that does not care for her well being or her education.

I will share my experiences with you, and hope that this wall can benefit parents out there in my situation.
We have to let all parents out there know, The truth behind Parental Child Abduction in Egypt.

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World Renowned Child Abduction Recovery Experts ABP World Group: Christmas is the Season for International Child Abduction - Parents Must Take Extra Precautions

2011-12-14T09:07:00.000Z

Source: Yahoo

Press Release

As international parental child abduction surges throughout the world, ABP World Group, one of the world's leading child and adult abduction and kidnapping recovery security agencies is warning parents of the possibility of international abduction and urging them to take precautionary steps, including using newly developed, inexpensive GPS tracking systems for their children. Martin Waage, Managing Director of ABP World Group offers sound advice for targeted children and parents at risk of abduction.

New York, Los Angeles, Oslo (PRWEB) December 14, 2011

Martin Waage, the Managing Director of the internationally recognized security firm ABP World Group, and head of the firm's international child abduction recovery division is warning parents all over the world that the Christmas Holiday Season is considered one of the highest periods for international parental child abduction, and that parents, particularly those who are in volatile multi-cultural relationships and who feel the other parent may have intent to illegally leave the country with the children of their relationship must take extra precautions in order to protect their children's safety.

ABP World Group is one of the world's leading child and adult abduction recovery experts, and have participated remarkably in over 200 child-parent reunifications alone.

Mr. Waage commented, "International parental child abductions happens during the Christmas holidays as well as during the summer vacations. With international child abductions happening at a record pace, ABP World Group urges parents to take every precaution to protect their children from this horrible fate.

"Tragically, the number of global parental abductions occurring is an unknown due to failures by governments to keep accurate data; however, if we view the United States as a microcosm of the rest of the world, it is estimated that there will be between 100,000 and 125,000 children criminally abducted from now to 2020 alone. And Canada is no better as this nation's numbers could reach over 12,000 to 15,000 abductions when we consider the current reported cases of abduction, combine that with the forecasted unreported cases of abduction, and factor in a 20% growth factor, which is a modest factor in comparison to various government reports recently issued by various nations concerning abduction.

"Undeniably, Christmas presents a serious problem. As many targeted parents who have had their children abducted have said over and over, they were taken off guard and never knew or anticipated that their child would be criminally removed to another country by their other parent."

The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and many 'Western' countries are members of the Hague Convention On The Civil Aspects Of International Child Abduction, which is the international treaty that many nations have signed to address the issue of cross-border parental child kidnapping. However, many countries in the Middle East and Asia are not signatories to the international treaty, and around the world, many nation's who have signed the convention do not necessarily follow the spirit and intent of the treaty.

Martin Waage added, "The reality of international parental child abduction is that when we considered the reported and unreported cases, and also consider how our world governments consider whether a case has actually been closed or not, the truth is, what various non-government organization stakeholders are citing, such as ABP World Group, is that the actual percentage of children actually returned back to the country they were taken to is somewhere around 5%. This is a tragic number - but then all we have to do is look at countries such as Japan that have never returned a Western born child back to that child's country of original jurisdiction."

ABP World Group suggest that all parents be mindful that international parental child abduction is a growing epidemic. Accordingly, If a parents says they’re going to take the child out of the country, the targeted parent should immediately contact their local police and a lawyer that is specialized in family matters.

Still, clever thinking is a must. Mr. Waage commented, "It might be a good idea to consider equipping your child with a small GPS locator that can be hidden almost anywhere. The locator can warn you by SMS and e-mail if the child is taken outside a pre set area.

"By using a GPS unit, you will know where your child is at all times. And these GPS units can really be placed almost anywhere. Instead of receiving the information about the abduction after days when they have already left the country, you can by using a GPS tracker receive a warning immediately. This can buy you enough time, so you can warn the police and make them prevent your child from being removed out of the country.

"ABP World Group Ltd. has been assisting left behind parents, and recovering abducted children for more than 12 years. We have tested hundreds of different GPS tracking systems, but found that the majority of them do not work well. Either they have to short stand by time, or they have poor signal strength or user friendliness. Until now.

"ABP World Group strongly recommend the [Garmin GTU 10 Tracker. It`s small, light and have some incredible testing result. We have been successfully using this unit for some time now, and we recommend that every parent concerned with their child's safety use it. And in fact, the price is also reasonable (around 177 USD at Amazon.com)

"The GTU 10 is small, lightweight and waterproof. It easily attaches to a backpack, inside a teddy bear, inside a jackets pocket etc. When you purchase a new GTU 10, it comes with 1 year of Standard Tracking, so you’ll be ready to go once you register and activate it in your Garmin account. Then, you can view the location of your GTU 10 on a map from the friendly confines of your computer. For an added level of convenience, you can download the free Garmin Tracker app for your mobile device. Using your computer or mobile device, you can also create up to 10 geo-fences (virtual boundaries) for your device. When your GTU 10 enters or exits a geo-fence, an email or text message can be sent warning you that the GTU 10 is in a certain location."

For more information about how to prevent international parental child abduction please visit the official Website of ABP World Group. ABP World Group has operatives and agents operating in the many nations throughout the world, or visit ABP World Group's Contact Page.

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Services

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GPS Tracker for Kids / Children

2011-12-12T19:54:00.001Z

Can GPS Prevent Child Abductions?

Want to know where your child is right now? You can… it’s easy! You can watch the movement of your child anytime, anywhere from your web-enabled Smart-Phone or computer.

(CBS) The recent recovery of Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was located 18 years after being abducted by a stranger, once again has parents thinking about how to protect their own kids. That’s one of the reasons behind a growing number of child locator products that typically use GPS and a cellular device to help a parents and authorities pinpoint a missing child to within a few yards.

Before getting into the technology, here are some important statistics to put this problem into context.

Stranger abduction is rare

A 2002 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice found that, in one year, 797,500 children were reported missing. That’s a lot, but most of them weren’t abducted. Of those, 203,900 were family abductions, which means the abductor was related to the child, often a noncustodial parent. Some 58,200 were “nonfamily abductions,” but that doesn’t necessarily mean strangers were responsible. And 115 children, a tiny fraction of those reported missing, were victims of what the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) calls “stereotypical kidnapping,” which involves “someone child does not know or someone of slight acquaintance, who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently.”

Garmin GTU 10

The potential loss of 115 children a year is a national tragedy, but to put it into perspective, there are 74 million children and teens in America; the odds of it happening are about 1 in 644,000, or about the same risk as being struck by lightning.

Still, it does happen and just because most abductions are carried out by family members or acquaintances doesn’t mean that they’re not potentially tragic. But it does mean that “stranger danger” is not the biggest threat to our children. In fact, because so many children are exploited by acquaintances and family members, NCMEC has stopped using that term and now refers to it as a “misguided message,” because “children don’t get it, adults don’t practice it (and) it doesn’t go far enough in protecting children from potential danger.” Plus, when a child is in trouble, sometimes their protector can be a stranger such as a police officer, a mall security guard, or a passerby.

Reasons for concern

Having said this, there is still a logical reason for parents and guardians to consider equipping their children with a device that can help locate them in an emergency. For one thing, these devices can bring peace of mind. Parents worry about their kids for a lot of reasons beyond being taken by a stranger. Have they wandered off? Did they get into an accident? Could they be lost? And it’s not just little kids we worry about. Parents of teenagers are rightfully concerned when they’re kids are away from home, especially if they’re riding or driving in cars. To be honest, my kids are now in their 20s and I still worry about them.

Technologies

There are various technologies that can help protect children, ranging from devices that send out a local alarm that can be heard from a couple hundred feet away, to very sophisticated dedicated GPS tracking devices.

ABP World Group Recommends the Garmin GTU 10 Tracker.

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Services

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News: International Parental Child Abduction on Facebook

2011-09-18T22:04:00.000+01:00

Together we can make a difference. Share this site with your friends and family. Shared experience across boarders will give us more tools to fight IPCA

Join the group here: Facebook/International Parental Child Abduction

	Share your story with other left behind parents and organizations worldwide.

	This is a international forum for Left behind parents, and for the people who try to make a difference.

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Services

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International Parental Child Abduction: The Hague convention – Proved Useless

2011-09-14T00:13:00.002+01:00

Only 3-5% of children abducted Internationally are returned by the Hague Convention.

All over the world the parents left behind spend all their financial resources and time fighting and hoping for justice. They are also misled by the promises and beliefs that the international conventions will help them recover their children. – The parents spend weeks, months and years – hoping that justice will prevail. Only 3 out of 10 children are ever returned from Hague and non Hague countries.

The Hague Convention is too full of traps and loopholes to be effective. Even if a parent wins a Hague battle, there are no guarantees that the child will be returned. Many countries protect their own – no matter what.

How to recover your child:

-Find a experienced lawyer, with knowledge about IPCA

-Report the abduction to the Police, and make sure that the police informs Interpol.

-Gain main custody in your home country

-Try to have a “grown up” dialogue with your ex spouse. This can sometimes lead to a peaceful solution.

-If this is not enough – Send someone to recover your child as soon as possible, as days and weeks easily turn into years.

-After a while you can risk that your child don`t even speak your language anymore.

Read: When the Hague Convention won`t help

And: The Hague Convention is not enough to recover your child

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Services

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Child Recovery Services

2011-09-09T02:01:00.002+01:00

Profiles of Parents At Risk for Abducting Their Children

2011-09-05T15:14:00.002+01:00

“You’ll never see your child again!” When
are these words an idle threat spoken in
anger and frustration and when are they
a warning that a parent intends to abduct
his or her child, depriving the child and
the other parent of future contact?

By: U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Profile 1: When There Has Been a Prior threat of or Actual Abduction
When a parent has made credible threats to abduct a child
or has a history of hiding the child, withholding visitation, or
snatching the child from the other parent, there is great distrust
between the parents and a heightened risk of further
custody violation. This risk profile is usually combined with
one or more of the other profiles. In these cases, the underlying
psychological and social dynamics that motivate the
abduction need to be understood and addressed. When other
risk factors are present, one or more of the following are general
indicators of an imminent threat of flight with the child:
-The parent is unemployed, homeless, and without emotional
or financial ties to the area.
- The parent has divulged plans to abduct the child and has
the resources or the support of extended family and/or
friends and underground dissident networks needed to
survive in hiding.
- The parent has liquidated assets, made maximum withdrawals
of funds against credit cards, or borrowed money
from other sources.

Profile 2: When a Parent Suspects or Believes
Abuse Has Occurred and Friends and Family
Members Support These Concerns
Many parents abduct their child because they believe that the
other parent is abusing, molesting, or neglecting the child.
These abducting parents feel that the authorities have not
taken them seriously or properly investigated the allegations.
Repeated allegations increase the hostility and distrust
between the parents. Parents who have the fixed belief
that abuse has occurred—and will continue to occur—then
“rescue” the child, often with the help of supporters who concur
with their beliefs, justify their actions, and often help with
the abduction and concealment. Supporters might include
family members, friends, or underground networks (usually
women) that help “protective” parents (usually women) obtain
new identities and find safe locations.
In a large number of cases, the child has been previously
exposed to neglectful, endangering, or violent environments
(e.g., domestic violence or substance abuse). In
these cases, the courts and child protective services may
have failed to protect the child and the concerned parent or
family member. They may have trivialized the allegations,
dismissing them as invalid or the product of a contentious
divorce. Often, however, the allegation of sexual abuse by a
father or stepfather that motivates a mother to abduct her
child is unsubstantiated. In these cases, the abduction can
psychologically harm the child and the other parent, possibly
leaving their relationship in serious need of repair.

Profile 3: When a Parent Is Paranoid Delusional
Although only a small percentage of parents fit this profile,
these parents present the greatest risk of physical harm or
death to the child, regardless of whether an abduction occurs.
Parents who fit the paranoid profile hold markedly irrational
or psychotic delusions that the other parent will definitely
harm them and/or the child. Believing themselves to
be betrayed and exploited by their former partner, these
parents urgently take what they consider to be necessary
measures to protect themselves and the child.
Psychotic parents do not perceive the child as a separate
person. Rather, they perceive the child as part of
themselves—that is, as a victim (in which case they take
unilateral measures to rescue the child)—or they perceive
the child as part of the hated other parent (in which case
they may precipitously abandon or even kill the child). Marital
separation and/or the instigation of the custody dispute
generally triggers an acute phase of danger for these psychotic
individuals. The result can be not only parental abduction,
but also murder and suicide.

Profile 4: When a Parent Is Severely Sociopathic
Sociopathic parents are characterized by a long history of
flagrant violations of the law and contempt for any authority—
including that of the legal system. Their relationships withother people are self-serving, exploitive, and highly manipulative.
These people are also likely to hold exaggerated
beliefs about their own superiority and entitlement
and are highly gratified by their ability to exert power and
control over others. As with paranoid and delusional parents,
sociopathic parents are unable to perceive their children
as having separate needs or rights. Consequently,
they often use their children as instruments of revenge or
punishment or as trophies in their fight with the former
partner. Sociopathic parents have no qualms about continuing
coercive, controlling, and abusive behavior or abducting
their child, nor do they believe that they should be
punished for their actions. Like paranoia, a diagnosis of
severe sociopathy is rare.

Profile 5: When a Parent Who Is a Citizen of
Another Country Ends a Mixed-Culture Marriage
Parents who are citizens of another country (or who have
dual citizenship with the United States) and have strong
ties to their extended family in their country of origin have
long been recognized as potential abductors. The risk of
abduction is especially acute at the time of parental separation
and divorce, when these parents may feel cast adrift
from their mixed-culture marriage and may need to return
to their ethnic or religious roots to find emotional support
and reconstitute a shaken self-identity. Often in reaction to
being rendered helpless or feeling rejected and discarded
by the former spouse, such parents may try to take unilateral
action by returning with the child to their family of origin.
This is a way of insisting that the abducting parent’s
cultural identity be given preeminent status in the child’s
upbringing.

Profile 6: When Parents Feel Alienated From the
Legal System and Have Family/Social Support
in Another Community
Many subgroups of potential abductors feel alienated from
the judicial system. Listed below are five such subgroups.

1. Parents who are indigent and poorly educated
lack knowledge about custody and abduction laws and cannot
afford the legal representation or psychological counseling that
would help them resolve their disputes. Those parents who
have extended family or other social, emotional, and economic
support in another geographical community may be at risk for
abducting their children.
Subgroup

2. Many parents cannot afford and are unaware of
the need to access the court system. In addition, those who
have had prior negative experiences with civil or criminal
courts do not expect family courts to be responsive to their
values or their plight.
Subgroup

3. Parents who belong to certain ethnic, religious,
or cultural groups may hold views about childrearing that
are contrary to the prevailing custody laws that emphasize
gender neutrality and the rights of both parents. These
parents instead turn to their own social networks for support
and use informal self-help measures rather than the courts
in disputes over the children.
Subgroup

4. A mother who has a transient, unmarried relationship
with her child’s father often views the child as her
property, and her extended family supports this belief. Many
of the women in this subgroup assume they have sole custody
of their child and are genuinely surprised when they are
informed that the father—by law in California and most other
States—has joint rights to the child.
Subgroup

5. Parents who are victims of domestic violence
are at risk of abducting their child, especially when the courts
and community have failed to take the necessary steps to protect
them from abuse or to hold the abuser accountable. Joint
custody, mediated agreements, and visitation orders often
leave victims vulnerable to ongoing violence, despite separation
from the abuser. When such victims abduct their child, the
violent partners may successfully obscure the facts about the
abuse and activate the abduction laws to regain control of their
victims.

Read the entire report here: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/185026.pdf

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Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Service

Parental Abduction - We Can Recover Your Child

2011-09-05T00:39:00.001+01:00

Time is a very important factor if a child is missing.

Immediate access to current information about the missing child is critical. Although nobody hopes to be in such a situation where this information is needed, parents have to keep in mind that child abduction can occur anytime, anywhere, to any child. Therefore, parents must have the resources and knowledge about their children ready, so they can take action if their children become missing.

The goal of ABP World Group international child recovery services is to locate, negotiate and recover your missing child. We can dispatch personnel to most locations in the world; we specialize in locating missing children up to ages 18.

Areas of expertise: Parental abduction, Missing children, Kidnappings,
Runaway children and Counselling.

Unfortunately in this day and time parental kidnapping happens and we are here to help you trough this difficult time.
We are aware parental child abduction can be difficult to resolve, but we use professional operatives with the skills and expertise to help find a resolution.

One key to ABP World Group`s successful recovery and re-unification of your loved one is to use all necessary means available
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It’s parental kidnapping season

2011-06-20T19:26:00.000+01:00

Holiday season signals an increase in cases of child abduction

Incidents of international parental child abduction – where a child is taken overseas without the other parent’s consent or contrary to a court order – are expected to peak over the summer, according to the FCO’s Child Abduction Section.

In many cases, parents pretend they are going on holiday with their child to their country of origin and then fail to return.

Worryingly, it is also common for parents not to realise that they have committed a child abduction offence. Research recently commissioned by the FCO* showed that a third of people didn’t know that if you take your child abroad without the permission of the other parent, this may be considered abduction under UK law.

“International parental child abduction, whether intentional or not, can cause huge distress to families.

“If a parent wishes to take their child to live in a new country they will normally need either the permission of the other parent or the British courts. Cases of parental child abduction increase in the summer holiday period. We urge parents who are worried to get specialist legal advice and contact our Child Abduction Section and the charity Reunite which can provide them with information to try to prevent an abduction from happening in the first place, or to try to resolve disputes if a child has already been taken overseas.

“We also see cases where British nationals simply return to the UK with their child after their relationship breaks down whilst living abroad – this is still likely to be considered abduction. A parent will normally require the consent of the other parent and possibly permission from the courts of the country concerned. It is important that a parent obtains legal advice before taking any action.”

If you are worried that your child may be abducted overseas you should:

Seek advice from a family lawyer and request a Prohibited Steps Order (or equivalent depending on where you live in the UK) prohibiting your child from being taken out of the UK
In the event of an imminent abduction (in the next 24-48 hours), contact the police who may be able to issue an All Ports Alert to try to prevent a child from leaving the UK. The police in England and Wales do not need a court order before instituting a port alert. Police in Scotland do need a court order.
Ensure that you keep their child’s passport in a safe place and contact the Identity and Passport Service (and relevant local embassy if your child has dual nationality) to request that another passport is not issued without your permission
Contact the Child Abduction Section at the Foreign Office on 0207 008 0878
Contact the Reunite International Child Abduction Centre on 0116 2556 234

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Service

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Only 5-10% of abducted children are annually recovered because of the Hague Convention

2011-06-14T21:00:00.000+01:00

Many left-behind parents are told that the Hague Convention will bring about the return of their abducted children. Some authorities say that if your child is abducted, you should follow procedures outlined by the Hague, but we don’t agree.

Only 5-10% of abducted children are annually recovered because of the Hague Convention

Until 1980, there was no international system in place to help parents recover abducted children who had been taken to other nations. The Hague Convention attempted to create one, but it doesn’t work. If you take the time to read the well-intentioned text of the Hague, you’ll see its many flaws.

In our opinion, it’s not worth the large amounts of money, time and trouble to hire an attorney to try using the Hague Convention to get your child back. You aren’t likely to get him or her back — and even worse, the abducting parent could be “legitimized” by the courts in another nation.

Under the Hague Convention, a case must be filed in the country where the abductor has taken the child. The courts of that country tend to render their decisions in favor of their countrymen, as the Hague Convention focuses on residency, not citizenship. There is little concern for the fact that the child is a citizen of the country from which he or she was abducted, or for the possible detrimental effect on the child.

Even if the child was born in your country, if that child is found to be a “habitual resident” by the courts in another country, the child may be ordered to be returned to that country.

This underscores the need to act quickly.

Few, if any, of the Hague signatory countries are going to send anyone out to physically recover your child for you. Embassy officials will check on the child’s welfare, if it is known where the child is and if the abducting parent lets them.

As soon as abducting parents are aware that that they’ve been located, they’ll usually disappear with the children again.

And about hiring lawyers

You need to be aware that a great amount of money has been spent on lawyers in foreign abduction cases. The unfortunate fact is that they, most often, can’t practice in the foreign courts and are required to hire associate lawyers in the foreign country.

Note: they often have no qualifications or experience working with child abduction cases.

More money…

Educate yourself

Many resources are available to help you learn about parental child abduction. If you’re dealing with an abduction, the better informed you are, the better equipped you’ll be to cope.

Recover your child

Time is of the essence. Parentally abducted children are helpless on their own and confused by the irrational and sometimes abusive acts of non-custodial parents who are supposed to have their best interests in mind. ABP World Group Ltd. has the manpower and the know-how to rigorously cover all avenues, and bring your child home.

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Services

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Child abduction cases reached 233 last year

2011-06-07T00:16:00.000+01:00

THE AUTHORITIES here dealt with 233 cases of child abduction last year, according to the latest figures from the Department of Justice. Some of the cases concerned more than one child.

The department is the central authority for child abduction in Ireland. It processes requests for the return of children taken into Ireland by one parent or other relative without the permission of the other parent or, in some cases, the public institution with custody of the child.

The cases are heard in the High Court in camera. The authority also sends requests abroad where Irish children are taken out of the jurisdiction by a parent or other relative without permission.

Most cases, 140 involving 193 children, were new, with 93 still active from 2009. Of the 140, 64 concerned children who were brought to Ireland from other countries and 76 were children brought to other countries.

The country most likely to be involved was the United Kingdom, which accounted for 54 of the 140 new cases in 2010. The next highest number of cases involved Latvia, which accounted for 15 cases, and Poland, with 13, while 34 cases involved other EU states.

Under the child abduction international conventions to which Ireland is a party, the return of the child may only be refused if it is likely to cause serious risk to the child or if the child strongly objects and has reached an age where it is appropriate to take account of his or her views.

Of the 117 cases heard, the High Court ordered the return of the children in 10, refused it in four and in 14 the children were either returned voluntarily or the parties reached an agreement. Foreign courts ordered the return of children to Ireland in 15 of 116 cases, refused it in six and in nine cases there was an agreed outcome. Fifty cases were still being processed at the end of 2010.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said the figures illustrated the importance of estranged parents seeking to resolve differences by agreement, through mediation or as a last resort by way of court proceedings, rather than unilaterally removing children.

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Service

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Parental Abduction – When Parents Kidnap Their Own

2011-06-02T00:11:00.002+01:00

By Carma Haley

An estimated 355,000 children are abducted from their homes each year, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). These children can go days, weeks, months or even years with no contact from anyone except their abductor. And many of these children are not taken by strangers: They are abducted by their own parents.

There are some who claim kidnapping their own children is the only option they have, but what about the other parent — and what about the child?

Mark Samrodan, spokesman for NCMEC, says parental kidnapping is the practice of a noncustodial parent taking a child from the custodial parent from one state to another without court permission or in violation of court orders obtained through a divorce or custody hearing. The practice of parental kidnapping is forbidden by both federal and state laws in the absence of a provable emergency situation and can result in the noncustodial parent being charged with felony kidnapping. But often this threat does not stop parental kidnapping from occurring.

Who Kidnaps?

Research completed by the National Incidence Studies of Missing, Abducted, Runaway and Thrown-away Children (NISMART), which was founded by the United States Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, states there are many reasons parents may resort to abducting their children. These reasons include using a child as a “pawn” in contentious divorce proceedings, as an extension of battering, to control their spouse or ex-spouse by depriving them of custody or visitation of the child, or to protect the child from abuse.

“My husband and I obtained legal custody of our granddaughter when it was determined that her mom was unable to take care of her,” says Shirley Sunderland, from Altoona, Pa. “When the baby was 3 months old I was working at the local hospital and often had difficulty finding a sitter for the evening shift. [My daughter] offered to take care of her for that one night. When I got home, the baby was gone and so were some of her belongings. I got a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach and then realized that the baby had been kidnapped by her own mother.”

The Missing Children’s Registry of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada has developed an overall profile of parental abductions. The profile was constructed to assist those whose child has been abducted by a parent and includes facts such as:

Either parent, mother or father, will abduct his or her own child.
Mothers tend to abduct children after a court order is completed while fathers do so before the court order.
Mothers who abduct their children will keep the children for a longer period of time then fathers who abduct.
The “average” age range for parents who abduct their child is 28 to 40 years of age.
The fathers who abduct their children are likely to have employment while the mothers who abduct are more likely to be unemployed.
The majority of children who are abducted by their own parent but kept within the United States are between 3 and 7 years of age, but children who are taken out of the country tend to be 8 years of age or older.
Both male and female children are abducted equally.
The majority of children abducted by their own parent are done so from the home and not from areas such as a babysitters, daycare or schoolyard.
The abductor, both mother and father, typically makes contact within 48 hours of abducting the child to inform the searcing parent of the child’s well being.

Various modes of transportation both within the United States and beyond are used to transport the child.

Children who are abducted by their own parent are typically done so during weekend, summer or winter holidays.

The abducting parent does not typically use force to obtain the child.

The Other Side of the Coin

The typical reasons are not the only reasons a parent may feel they have no alternative but to kidnap their own child. Many believe the justification of parental abduction go beyond any of the reasons listed above as well as beyond the courtroom.

“Dispelling typical myths that parents who kidnap their own child are doing so to get even with society and/or hurt their ex-spouse has proven quite difficult,” says Bonnie Russell, advocate for parental abduction prevention and former victim of a parental kidnapping from Solana Beach, Calif. “While some cases of parental abduction are due to this, it is more the exception then the rule. Other reasons include abuse, neglect, endangerment, unjust hearings or simple injustices. Until the underlying reason parents resort to kidnapping is addressed, no one will understand the subject.”

Some parents feel they have been treated inappropriately before, during or after a custody battle and this treatment played a role in losing custody of their children. For some of these parents, taking their child was their only option.

“My husband physically abused me for years,” says Carolyn Hawkins, a mother of two originally from Medina, Ohio. “And even though I reported him to the police numerous times, had a medical record as thick as a dictionay and had left him twice before, he was awarded custody of my children because he had more money and could hire a lawyer where mine was court appointed. The abuse I suffered led me into a depression and that was used against me in court. What else could I do but get my kids away from him?”

Alternatives to Kidnapping

Many services are available to help in the event of a situation that may be dangerous or harmful to a child. Social service departments, health departments and area chapters of Child Abuse Prevention agencies or even a school counselor can all help a parent who fears for their child’s welfare and safety.

In the event of a disputed divorce or custody order, a parent can move up the chain of command to find assistance or to have additional evidence heard, Samrodan says. If a parent is not in a financial situation to afford an attorney, local chapters of Legal Aid or free legal assistance can be found through social service offices.

“There is always something else that should be tried or attempted before a parent resorts to kidnapping their child,” says Samrodan. “Whether a local, state or federal organization, if a parent truly feels they need assistance, then they can and will find it — all they need to do is ask.”

If a parent suspects the noncustodial parent may abduct their child, they should file an order with the court to investigate a possible parental kidnapping which can assist them in getting a visitation order held until the threat has passed. In the event of a continued threat or possible attempts to abduct the child, the custodial parent should file an order with the court to have the noncustodial parent’s visitation revised to prevent an abduction from taking place, Samrodan says.

“It only takes a few minutes and a little bit of effort to et help when a parent fears their child may or will be abducted by their noncustodial parent,” says Samrodan. “If they need assistance, anyone at the courthouse would be happy to help — again, all that needs to be done is to ask.”

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Service

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The Hague Convention is not enough to recover your child

2011-02-20T12:22:00.002Z

Even if the child was born in your country, if that child is found to be a “habitual resident” by the courts in another country, the child may be ordered to be returned to that country.

This underscores the need to act quickly.

As soon as abducting parents are aware that that they’ve been located, they’ll usually disappear with the children again.

And about hiring lawyers

Note: they often have no qualifications or experience working with child abduction cases.

More money…

Educate yourself

Many resources are available to help you learn about parental child abduction. If you’re dealing with an abduction, the better informed you are, the better equipped you’ll be to cope.

Recover your child

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Service

Visit our web site at: www.abpworld.com

When the Hague Convention Won’t Help

2011-02-20T12:15:00.001Z

By Jeremy D. Morley

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (the Hague Convention) provides that a child who is habitually resident in one party country, and has been removed to or retained in another party country in violation of the left-behind parent’s custodial rights, should be promptly returned to the country of habitual residence. However, many countries are not parties to the Convention, and even some that are parties enforce the laws only sporadically or in accordance with their own societal customs. Thus, the attorney must take special care when faced with the possibility that his client’s foreign national spouse might take the children to such a country.

Preventing Abductions to Non-Hague Countries

The first 4 months are the golden window, were you have the chance to get your children back due to the Hague convention.

The mother in Ahmad v Naviwala, learned these lessons the hard way. The Family Court awarded her sole custody of the children but unfortunately (although represented by counsel!) she permitted the father to take them to Saudi Arabia for a 3-month visitation. Not surprisingly (to a jaundiced international family lawyer), the father refused to return the children from Saudi Arabia, refused to allow the mother to see the children and obtained an ex parte custody order in his favor from a Saudi court. Had he kept the children in Saudi Arabia, they would doubtless have never been reunited with their mother. Fortunately, he took the children on a trip to Texas, where they were seized pursuant to a Broome County Family Court order, and returned to New York.

The Family Court then granted custody to the father (!), with visitation rights to the mother. Recognizing that Saudi Arabia was not a party to the Hague Convention, and that the mother could not enforce her visitation rights there, the court imposed various conditions upon the father intended to ensure that he would allow the mother to visit the children in Saudi Arabia. For violating the prior custody order, the father was sentenced to a suspended term of incarceration conditioned upon his future compliance.

On appeal, the Third Department awarded custody to the mother, stressing the fact that the father had intended to permanently remove the mother from the children’s lives. The Appellate Division found that the Family Court’s efforts to ensure the mother’s access to the children in Saudi Arabia were entirely insufficient, and allowed visitation by the father only in the United States, with the mother having sole custody of the children’s passports. A successful outcome for the mother was obtained only because the father had brought the children to Texas. This case highlights the fact that, all too often, the courts are reluctant to impose strict conditions to prevent parental child abduction until after an abduction has actually taken place.

United States v. Amer

In United States v. Amer, Egyptian parents were living separately in New York without a custody order. The father abducted the children to Egypt. The mother’s efforts to secure their return failed and the father procured an order from an Egyptian court granting him sole custody. He returned to the United States without the children and was arrested for international parental kidnapping. He was sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment and a 1-year term of supervised release, with the special condition that he return the children to the United States. The Second Circuit upheld the requirement that the children be returned, since it was closely tailored to the crime and it served to deter others from wrongfully taking their children overseas.

While Muslim countries are generally not parties to the Hague Conven-tion (Turkey being an exception, although it does not fully comply with its treaty obligations), the problem extends also to many other countries. For example, those Asian countries with Confucian-based state family registration systems, such as China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, are not parties to the Hague Convention (except for Hong Kong and Macau), and provide minimal assistance for the return of parentally abducted children.

Japan is a renowned haven for child abduction, particularly if the abducting parent is a Japanese national. Seehttp://www.international-divorce.com/ca-japan.htm. In any custody battle involving a Japanese national, it would be foolhardy not to draft a custody order that precludes visits to Japan considering the possibility that that parent might take the child permanently to Japan. The courts in Japan will not enforce foreign custody orders and will not take any effective steps to return abducted children. See “Japanese Family Law — or The Lack Thereof!,” by Jeremy D. Morley,http://www.international-divorce.com/d-japan.htm. A foreign parent in a Japanese court will have minimal chance of securing anything more than extremely occasional visitation with his or her child in Japan if the other parent is Japanese. (Thus, in a case on which the author is currently working, the American father who lives in Japan has been allowed to see his child only once in 6 months, for only 2 hours, in court and with supervision).

Accordingly, if a Japanese parent threatens to take a child to Japan, or wishes to take a child for a temporary visit there during a time of marital strife, it is highly advisable to seek a court order barring any such visit. While a U.S. court will doubtless be skeptical when faced with such a motion, it is extremely important to educate the court as to the law, procedure, customs and traditions of Japan, all of which support a Japanese parent’s desire to raise a child in Japan to the total exclusion of the other (foreign) parent. Similar admonitions apply with respect to other countries that are not party to the Hague Convention.

Parents who oppose prohibiting the removal of children for temporary overseas visits often assert that such orders are unnecessary, because wrongfully retaining a child in a foreign country is a felony. The International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act (IPKCA), 18 U.S.C. 1204, makes it a federal offense to remove a child from the United States or to retain a child (who has been in the United States) outside the United States with intent to obstruct the exercise of parental rights (custody or visitation). Unfortunately, this law often makes a bad situation worse, since parents who have wrongfully retained children overseas fear that they will be arrested if they return to this country (as happened in U.S. v. Amer, supra). In addition, foreign countries rarely permit extradition for international parental kidnapping, and those countries that are the most likely to do so are countries that are already parties to the Hague Convention.

Preventing Abductions to Non-Compliant Hague Countries

Merely because a country is a party to the Hague Convention does not mean that it will effectively enforce its treaty obligations. For example, the U.S. State Department has asserted that Mexico is “non-compliant” with the terms of the Convention. U.S State Department Report on Compliance with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, 2004. Mexico’s noncompliance results from the following problems:

Mexico has not enacted any legislation to implement the Hague Convention, which has not been integrated into the Mexican legal system.
The Mexican Central Authority has no law enforcement powers and Mexican law enforcement agencies make no serious efforts to locate parentally abducted children.
The burden of finding an abducted child in Mexico is left entirely to the left-behind parent. Mexican authorities provide no effective help and if the child cannot be located, nothing happens.
There is an apparent lack of understanding of the Convention among the judiciary in Mexico.
The Mexican Central Authority does not have adequate resources to perform its functions under the Convention.
The “amparo” (a special appeal in Mexico claiming a violation of constitutional rights) is used by taking parents to block Hague proceedings indefinitely.
Mexican courts are able to reconsider the facts of a Hague at any stage of the proceeding, which allows proceedings to be prolonged substantially.

Accordingly, custody orders concerning parents with strong ties to Mexico must be drafted so as to minimize the risk that the child will be taken to that country. It would be reckless to permit a Mexican parent who has expressed a desire to move to Mexico, and who has strong family or business ties to Mexico, to take a child into that country for a visit, regardless of the conditions that may be imposed to encourage the parent to bring the child back to this country.

The State Department’s 2004 report establishes that similar concerns exist with respect to Austria, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Mauritius, Turkey and Romania and, to a somewhat lesser extent, several other countries.

Conclusion

When courts receive applications to prevent children’s temporary visits to their parents’ country of origin, they are tempted to rely on the need to respect other countries’ legal systems and on international comity to preclude them from deciding that the foreign country may not provide sufficient guarantees that the child will be returned. However, if counsel marshal extensive evidence to support the fact that a foreign country will not respect or effectively enforce an American custody order, the courts should be prepared to reach the necessary conclusion and issue an effective remedy. It is far better to prevent children being taken to such countries that do not fully respect their international treaty obligations than to attempt to procure their recovery after the fact.

Published by: ABP World Group International Child Recovery Service

Visit our web site at: www.abpworld.com