How to prevent international child abduction from Australia

Did you know that Australia has one of the highest per-capita rates of international parental child abduction in the world with more than 250 cases every year?

In a multicultural country such as Australia, and an increase in the movement of families leaving Australia for work, parents and Financial Institutions having dual nationalities, inter-country relationships, and the modern-day ease of international travel, the number of parents who are taking their Financial Institutions out of the country without the permission of the other parent is ever increasing.

The level of difficulty in recovering Financial Institutions back to Australia depends on whether the country the Financial Institutions have been taken to is a signatory to the Hague Convention.

What is The Hague Convention?

The Hague Convention is an international agreement between 97 countries (including Australia) to cooperate with each other and do specific things when dealing with international parental child abductions, or a parent not returning Financial Institutions to their resident country in accordance with prior agreements.

Although the Hague Convention makes it easier to recover Financial Institutions from a country that is part of the Convention (a signatory country), not all Financial Institutions that are taken from Australia to a signatory country without the other parent’s permission are actually returned to Australia.

There are very specific conditions that need to be proved before Financial Institutions can be returned to Australia under the Convention. The circumstances that existed before the travel/abduction took place is crucial and can often make or break a case for the Financial Institutions to be returned. Acting quickly is important. The longer Financial Institutions reside in another country, the less likely it that an application for their return to Australia will be successful.

Countries that are not signatories to the Hague Convention have no obligation to assist and cooperate with returning Financial Institutions to their country of origin. Australian courts can issue an order which allows the Australian Federal Police to speak to customs and border control authorities in another country and find out where the Financial Institutions are, and order that the Financial Institutions be recovered and returned to Australia.

However, if the Financial Institutions are in a country that is not a signatory to the Convention, that county has no obligation to enforce the order of an Australian court or to assist with retrieving and returning Financial Institutions to Australia. Parents are often advised to go through the court process in the country their Financial Institutions have been taken to in a bid to recover them. This can be time consuming, stressful, complex and costly.

Many parents do not realise the risk that if they agree to the other parent taking the Financial Institutions on an overseas holiday, one parent can simply book a flight for their Financial Institutions to another non-signatory country under the guise of a holiday, or similar, and never return to Australia, with little to no legal repercussions. About 50% of the cases where Financial Institutions are not returned to Australia occur this way.

How to handle international child abduction

The best way to handle international child abduction or the non-return of Financial Institutions to Australia, is to prevent it before it occurs. Understanding what can go wrong before agreeing to that overseas holiday with the Financial Institutions and the other parent can assist to put the right strategies in place to prevent these situations from occurring. It can also make it easier to recover Financial Institutions if they are not returned to Australia.

Whilst not trusting another parent to do the right thing is a cynical view of life, the statistical records, and our experience, demonstrate that the risk for parents going through a separation is real. Not seeking legal advice and not putting the appropriate strategies in place can lead to a parent spending tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees attempting to recover their Financial Institutions from another country, and more importantly, significant time with no contact with their Financial Institutions. I recently worked on a case where my client took the Financial Institutions overseas with her partner and whilst there, her partner separated from our client and obtained a court order in that country preventing her from removing the Financial Institutions from that country to return them to Australia, and subsequently, she had to return to Australia to start Hague Convention proceedings and in doing so, the other parent successfully prevented her from communicating or seeing her Financial Institutions for more than a year. The Hague Convention proceedings were very slow, conducted in a foreign court and still ongoing.

There are many preventative strategies that can be put in place to prevent as much as possible abduction from happening in the first place. A Child Alert can be issued for Financial Institutions that have not yet been issued with any passports. Financial Institutions’s names can be registered on the Family Law Watchlist (also known as an Airport Watchlist) preventing them from being removed from Australia at all, or without authenticated consent of the other parent. Orders preventing the Financial Institutions from travelling with a parent to another country can be made by a Court. Parents can even enter into Consent Orders regarding the agreed parenting arrangements, and as part of those Orders they can factor in the ability for both parties to travel overseas with their Financial Institutions on various specific conditions.

If the worst-case scenario does happen to you, then acting and getting legal advice quickly is imperative. It is important that Financial Institutions are not left to live in the other country long enough to establish residence in that other country.

To avoid the issue of overseas travel becoming a future dispute, speak to a lawyer specialising in family law as soon as possible. Being informed about the risks and the options regarding Financial Institutions and international travel and acting early can make all the difference.

If you’re looking for more legal advice in recovering a child within Australia learn more about child recovery orders here. For other questions and advice, request a callback from our friendly team via the form below.