- Many abducted children still abroad
- By Carol Nader
- 13/11/2008 Make a Comment
- Contributed by: The Rooster ( 264 articles in 2008 )
ABOUT 60 children who have been abducted out of Australia this year have not been returned to their families.
Figures from the Attorney-General's Department released to The Age show that, of 121 children abducted out of Australia between January and October this year, only 62 have been returned — 49 by court order and 13 voluntarily.
The department says that the cases of the remaining 59 children are either ongoing or have been rejected by the jurisdictional court in the country the children were abducted to, or have been withdrawn.
A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General's Department said it was important to note that not all abduction cases were resolved in the same year.
The Age yesterday reported that a Melbourne man had flown to Sweden to search for his two sons, who have been missing for a month, along with their Swedish mother.
The children were in Sweden during an access visit granted by the Family Court and were due to return to their father in Australia last month.
Alastair Nicholson, former chief justice of the Family Court of Australia, said the Hague Convention that deals with international child abduction and access rights largely worked well, but it was not without problems.
"It does seem to be that there are potential problems such as the one here in terms of ensuring that the children do come back," he said.
"I think you could only do that by having some kind of reporting system, such as producing the kids weekly at a police station … or some other less forbidding official organisation."
The father of the children missing in Sweden intends to apply to the Family Court for a publication order, so that the children's names can be revealed to help locate them.
Mr Nicholson said the court might be receptive to the application, given the circumstances.
"It might flush out someone here who knows something about the case that, if it isn't publicised, may never have heard of it," he said.
Figures from the Attorney-General's Department released to The Age show that, of 121 children abducted out of Australia between January and October this year, only 62 have been returned — 49 by court order and 13 voluntarily.
The department says that the cases of the remaining 59 children are either ongoing or have been rejected by the jurisdictional court in the country the children were abducted to, or have been withdrawn.
A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General's Department said it was important to note that not all abduction cases were resolved in the same year.
The Age yesterday reported that a Melbourne man had flown to Sweden to search for his two sons, who have been missing for a month, along with their Swedish mother.
The children were in Sweden during an access visit granted by the Family Court and were due to return to their father in Australia last month.
Alastair Nicholson, former chief justice of the Family Court of Australia, said the Hague Convention that deals with international child abduction and access rights largely worked well, but it was not without problems.
"It does seem to be that there are potential problems such as the one here in terms of ensuring that the children do come back," he said.
"I think you could only do that by having some kind of reporting system, such as producing the kids weekly at a police station … or some other less forbidding official organisation."
The father of the children missing in Sweden intends to apply to the Family Court for a publication order, so that the children's names can be revealed to help locate them.
Mr Nicholson said the court might be receptive to the application, given the circumstances.
"It might flush out someone here who knows something about the case that, if it isn't publicised, may never have heard of it," he said.
Source: https://www.theage.com.au/national/many-abducted-children-still-abroad-20081112-5o1d.html
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