India Third Most Favoured Nation For UK Child Abductors

LONDON – India has nowemerged as the third most favouritedestination for Britain-based parentsinvolved in fleeing after abductingtheir child.Interestingly, contrary to popularbelief that fathers are most oftento blame, mothers have beenfound to be responsible for 70% ofthese abductions, according to UK’sforeign and commonwealth office(FCO) said.Latest FCO data has thrown up astartling trend – almost two children aday were abducted to a foreign countryby parents in UK in 2012.The number of parental child abductionand custody cases has more thandoubled over the last decade.In 2003-04, the FCO was involvedin 272 new parental child abduction andinternational custody cases.In 2012-13 that figure rose to 580,the second highest ever recorded and a113% increase in cases over the previousyear.Pakistan with 35 such cases last yeartops the list of 10 countries children havebeen abducted to where returns aren’tavailable under international law followedby Thailand with 17 cases.India is third in this infamous listwith 16 cases of child abduction recorded,followed by Japan 11, Morocco 10,Egypt and UAE 8.Reunite – a charity that provides adviceand support to parents involved inparental child abduction cases – has dealtwith 447 new cases involving 616 children.It reported a particular spike in casesafter Christmas 2012 and again in Septemberthis year following the summerholidays.FCO is now worried that Christmas2013 due in just over a week could seea similar spike in child abductions acrossUK.The FCO has now launched a hardhittingfilm “Caught in the middle”, tohighlight the issues and encourage parentsto think of the consequences beforedoing something that could do lastingdamage to the children and families involved.Mark Simmonds, Minister forConsular Affairs, said “I was very concernedto see an increase in child abductioncases. Parental child abduction hasa devastating emotional impact on thechild as well as the taking parent andthe parent left behind. It can do lastingdamage to a child’s relationship withboth parents and their happiness. Theseare often distressing cases for everyoneinvolved and there are no easy fixes, butour staff around the world work hard toassist those parents left behind”.