A British mother, who escaped Family Court tyranny six years ago, has been captured in Northern Cyprus.
This is especially bad news, as the island of Cyprus has served as a welcome stop on the Underground Railroad for Mothers. Her arrest—and two others—may signal that it it is now a defunct depot.
Sarah was arrested April 7th and deported back to the UK last week. She is now languishing in a prison in Cheshire awaiting trial.
Cyprus has been such a popular destination for fleeing mothers that there is an attorney who specializes in these cases. Mine Atli helps mothers get amnesty, protective orders, and visas.
These women are being failed in their country. They need some kind of amnesty and there needs to be a path to safety for these women and their children.
It is unclear whether Sarah applied for amnesty or was just in hiding.
Law enforcement descended upon their place of refuge and arrested Sarah. They forcibly removed Tom from his mother’s arms. He was taken to the UK and placed into a care home. How traumatic that must be for him…
One reason Turkey has served as a safe haven for mothers is because it is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. That means the father cannot file a “Hague case” there to get his child returned.
A larger problem, as seen in Sarah’s case, seems to be extradition agreements between countries. Turkey can extradite a criminal to the UK if the crime is punishable by more than a year in prison. The sentence for parental abduction in the UK is up to seven years. But Sarah is not a convicted criminal. There is simply a warrant out for her arrest on abduction charges yet to be prosecuted.
It is highly unusual for TRNC to arrest and extradite mothers. They have previously had a policy of not cooperating with international law enforcement agencies in favor of women and children. And they rarely even extradite real criminals. So what’s happened?
Someone who’s lived there for decades commented that there seemed to be something “underhanded” at play in Sarah’s case.
Many criminals have managed to avoid extradition, so it really seems something more underhanded is at work here.
It may have been simple bribery or connections or powers-that-be cooperating.
Whatever the reason in Sarah’s case, it seems extradition is trumping the Hague process. It is much easier for men to get an arrest warrant and enter it into international databases than going through a long court process. And the frosting on the cake is the mother will surely be locked up for an extended period of time.
So, unfortunately, the TRNC stop on the underground railroad for mothers may now be defunct. The fact that men know this is a common destination means they can hire P.I.’s to scour the island looking for their property.
That leaves countries without extradition treaties as a better bet unless the mother is sure she can remain invisible in another country. Unfortunately, most of the non-extraditing countries are weak on human and women’s rights, but they may be preferable to children being abused.
How sad is it that women have to flee and have so few options when all they want to do is protect their children.
The modern underground for mothers escaping Family Court has its roots in an American network begun by Faye Yager in the mid-80’s. She heard about Karen’s case, in which the molesting father was given sole custody, despite medical proof of the abuse.
Needless to say, this ticked off the Old Boys. Faye was tenaciously stalked and prosecuted for child abduction. Fortunately, the jury saw through the prosecution’s duplicity and acquitted her.
However, the Old Boys were not done with Faye. They recently produced a high-dollar pseudo-documentary series, which they called “Children of the Underground”. They insinuated Faye was crazy for believing the children and had influenced them to report the abuse. They peddled their narrative—that it was all just a “satanic panic”.
This film has also served to coopt the term “Children of the Underground”. Google searches now bring up the pseudo-doc instead of Faye’s brilliant work and her being portrayed as hero. (There’s a word for this kind of sabotage but can’t think of it.) So they not only discredited her, they disappeared her.
Keep Faye’s memory alive!
Source: Captured in Cyprus! Is this Underground Railroad Stop Now Defunct?