CHILD abduction cases involving Merseyside children are set to soar during the school holidays, a Liverpool family lawyer has revealed.
Last summer, solicitors reported there was a sharp rise in the number of worried parents who contacted them fearing that their former partner had abducted their children and taken them abroad.
In many cases, the concern was that a parent without residence of a child had exploited their contact time by failing to return children from summer holidays or visits to family overseas.
Katie McCann, a family law expert at Liverpool-based law firm Brabners Chaffe Street, said: “This situation happens a lot more than people realise and it causes untold heartache for the parent who is left behind, wondering if their children are safe.
“Last summer we recorded a five-fold increase in the number of enquiries from anxious parents, desperate to know what they could do to get their children back and how they stood in terms of the law.
“An area of law that would normally have accounted for around 5% of our caseload quickly became 25% of our work, the swing was unexpected but very clear.
“Our clients differ – often it may be a mother whose former husband or boyfriend has taken the children abroad, not returned at the agreed time and stopped accepting their phone calls.
“In other cases, a parent born overseas and who has perhaps moved back there after the break-up of their relationship decides they want to raise the children in that country, regardless of the other parent’s wishes.
“I think Merseyside tends to be a hotspot for such cases due to the multicultural mix we have in the area. People from many backgrounds are attracted to live here but problems can arise if they decide to return to their home country.
“If a child is wrongfully removed from the UK or is wrongfully retained abroad by a parent then we can take urgent steps to try and secure the child’s return so that the dispute between the parents can be heard in the UK courts. The level of difficulty we face depends on the country concerned.
“In the past 12 months we have advised on cases where children are being held as far away as The Philippines, South Africa, Turkey and Texas.
“I fully expect there to be surge of new enquiries and cases as the summer rolls in, as this tends to be the prime time for child abductions to take place.�