Two Irish children to be placed on Interpol red notice, Tánaiste promises mother

Mandy Kelly outside Government Buildings after her meeting with Simon Harris. She said: 'I have been trying for a long time to have the children on a red notice. Picture: Gareth Chaney
Two Irish children being held in Egypt against their mother’s wishes will be placed on the red Interpol notice — meaning their father can be arrested at any time by police worldwide.
Zayn and Kareen Mohamed, who are aged 7 and 4, were both taken from their mother Mandy Kelly from Dundalk in March 2022 during a family holiday in Cairo.
They had travelled there to meet their grandmother when their father drove the children away, and she never saw them again.
Ms Kelly met with the Tánaiste and foreign affairs minister Simon Harris on Tuesday to request further support from the Government in relation to the safe return of her two boys.
Speaking to the
she thanked the Tánaiste for his assistance to date and said he had promised to provide consular assistance in the Egyptian courts while Ms Kelly’s mother-in-law appeals the ruling to return the children to their mother in Ireland.He has also promised to write formally to the department of justice to begin the process of placing both children on the red Interpol notice — a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. He said he would follow up with his Egyptian counterpart regarding the case.
“I am really happy that the meeting was a success,” said Ms Kelly.
“He has committed to the above three requests and that means a lot to me. I have been trying for a long time to have the children on the red notice, which is the most serious notice”.
A yellow notice is activated by the international policing body for priority cases of missing children, and the boys were placed on this list in December last year. Ms Kelly said:
“The Egyptian courts have ruled that the children be returned to me. However my mother-in-law has appealed that decision, and that hearing will take place next month.
“I have asked that the department of foreign affairs and the Irish Embassy in Cairo provide me with support during that hearing and to carry out diplomatic observation."
Unknown to Ms Kelly, her estranged husband had no plans to return to Ireland, and locked her in an apartment and drove the children away.
Despite securing court orders here and in Egypt, authorities in Cairo have claimed her estranged husband “remains unlocatable”.
“Kareem is due to start school now. I am unaware of any welfare checks on them, I don’t know anything.
“He can disrespect the court's process like this, and it is deeply unfair to the children and to me."
Egypt is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on child abduction, making Ms Kelly’s case more complex.
However, she has urged the department of justice to review a request by former minister for justice Alan Shatter in 2013, to establish a bilateral agreement following the case of Faris Heeney, who was smuggled through Dublin airport on his sister’s passport and taken to Egypt by his father.
The agreement was never progressed.