Children ‘hostages’ in parental disputes as abductions on rise

Every year up to 250,000 children go missing in Europe — many of them abducted by one of their parents.

The legal situation on custody following a couple separating or divorcing can be difficult when parents are from or are living in different countries.

The number of cross-border marriages in the EU is increasing and so too are the divorces, with about 140,000 last year.

Gradually EU countries have been finding ways to recognise one another’s family law decisions, but legal disputes about access and custody can be harrowing.

“Children end up becoming hostages to long legal disputes to decide parental responsibility, but in some cases children are abducted by one of their parents,” said European Justice Commissioner Vivian Reding.

The figures for the US where 800,000 children are abducted shows that in 99% of cases they are taken by a parent or other family member.

Each member state maintains its own system of family law and parents often have to navigate between different and sometimes conflicting rules, Ms Reding said.

There was a breakthrough on the issue in 2005 when under the Brussels IIa regulation, countries agreed to a common set of guidelines on which court was competent to review a case for divorce, separation and parental responsibility.

It also guides each country’s legal system in recognising and enforcing judgements made in other EU countries. They also agreed that an abducted child must be returned to where they normally live and decisions taken from there.

But its success has been limited, with delays in counties recognising decisions on custody. Some countries refuse to recognise decisions from a country where it is not mandatory for the court to hear from the child as that is the law in their country.

Courts have refused to order the return of a child abducted by a parent for similar reasons. “This is a very serious problem,” said Ms Reding.

The Commission together with the European Parliament’s mediator in child abduction cases, Roberta Angelilli, launched an information campaign and a public consultation to gather opinions from citizens about ways to resolve this.