Fall in number of child kidnaps

THE number of child abduction cases has fallen, with almost half involving Britain.

The Irish Central Authority for Child Abduction received 136 new cases involving 183 children last year, five fewer than in 2008.

Of those, 75 were abductions from Ireland to other countries, while in 61 cases the children were transferred in the opposite direction.

Of the new cases, 46% involved England, Wales and Scotland, with 24 incoming cases (just one of which involved Scotland), and 30 outgoing cases just involving either England or Wales.

The country with the next highest number of cases was Poland, with 13 outgoing cases and three incoming. There were seven outgoing cases across the border into the North, and three incoming cases.

Other countries with which Ireland was involved in attempting to resolve cases of child abduction include Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Latvia (with eight incoming cases), South Africa and the United States.

Overall the Central Authority dealt with 222 applications last year, including 86 carried over from the previous year.

By the end of last year 91 of those cases were still awaiting resolution, while a further 50 cases had been withdrawn.

In seven cases the Irish courts ordered the return of the child to the jurisdiction, with foreign courts making similar rulings in another 10 cases.

In five cases courts here refused an application for the child to be returned to another country, while foreign courts turned down applications for children to be returned to Ireland in three cases.

In 16 cases the children were either returned voluntarily or an agreement was reached between the various parties, with similar resolutions made in six outgoing cases.

A number of different treaties affect child abduction applications, and of the 222 cases dealt with the Central Authority last year the majority, at 141, were made under the Hague Convention, designed to ensure the quick return of children taken from one contracting state to another, usually by a parent in defiance of the wishes of the other parent.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins has criticised the Government for stalling an early warning hotline on missing children.

He said there were no plans to establish the system here even though 11 EU member states have done so with the “116000 hotline”.

He has written to Children Minister Barry Andrews, adding the ISPCC had the expertise to run a hotline, but Government appeared unwilling to provide funding.