Hartnell Chanot: Divorce/Family Law Solicitors Exeter, Devon

Child abduction to a non Hague Convention Country

You must apply for custody and permission to bring your child home in the oversees court.

Tracing and returning a child from a non-Hague Convention country is more difficult since there may be very little in the way of protocol to assist you.

As in all cases of parental child abduction you must first contact the police, an experienced family solicitor and in this case Reunite. In addition to this you should contact the Child Abduction Section of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office on 0207 008 0878 (office hours) or 0207 008 1500 (out of office hours). They can tell you whether the country your child has been taken to is within the Hague Convention or not and advise you further.

Where a child has been taken to a non-Hague Convention country, you must apply for custody and permission to bring your child home in the oversees court rather than in your country of residence. The Foreign Office can offer the following assistance:

• Provide a list of lawyers who speak English (note this is no recommendation or guarantee of professional competence).
• Carry out a welfare report on the child if the other parent consents
• Contact relevant overseas authorities to express their interest in the case and to check the progress being made in finding the child
• Provide you with travel, accommodation and translation advice.
• In exceptional circumstances attend court hearings abroad

They cannot:

• Locate the child if you do not know their whereabouts
• Assist in any illegal efforts to rescue the child
• Interfere with the legal system of another country

Prevention is better than cure, especially in the case of children being taken to non-Hague convention countries. The following pages contain advice on how to prevent your child from being abducted if you can.

View a PDF of the Hague Convention Countries .