British mothers who bring their children with them when returning to the UK after fleeing from domestic abuse abroad – which can lead to them being accused of abduction – could be given greater legal protection and support.
The government has agreed to examine how domestic abuse features in international child abduction cases, with a view to giving survivors of domestic abuse more help fighting partners’ demands that they return children to their home countries.
Approximately 500 Hague-convention applications for the return of a child are filed each year in England and Wales. Between 10% and 20% of children affected end up being separated from their primary carer owing to a formal court-ordered return.
Campaigners hope the analysis, the first of its kind, will disprove the four-decade-old assumptions, baked into the convention, that all child abduction is harmful and that children must be returned immediately for overseas courts to decide their futures.