Since Covid, an average of 40 children have been taken overseas or kept there against the wishes of a parent. Photo: 123rf.com
An Auckland family law professor is calling for the government to collect better figures on international abductions.
In the last six non-Covid years, government figures show an average of 40 children a year were taken overseas or kept there against the wishes of a New Zealand parent.
The Justice Ministry only collates numbers for children taken to countries that have signed the Hague Convention.
Auckland University professor Mark Henaghan said the government could introduce a mechanism where lawyers must report cases from other countries.
Finding children in countries that have not signed international child protection protocols could be hard and we should record how many were returned, he said.
"Should we respond to this more specifically than we are, rather than just hoping for the best? We don't even have the figures of how much it's happening, and the impacts will be severe for the person left behind and also for children.
"Can we do this better? Because we have to adapt our circumstances in this country, we can't wait for international conventions to do something about it and these countries may never sign up."
He said research showed children and their parents suffered mental health problems after abductions.
"It's sad, but there are sad cases on both sides - sad sometimes for the abductor, who sometimes has good reasons for abducting, [like] escaping a violent relationship.
"It can create serious mental health issues for people left behind. Certainly, there's pressure on children who feel that they can't really trust the world, because they're not sure where they're going to end up.
"Pretty much all cases have damaging effects on everyone involved, actually."
Some abducted children got through the alert system at the airport, especially if the passport name had a spelling variant, but many abductions involved parents fleeing with children suddenly, where no court-ordered alert existed.
Private investigators
With increasing rates of immigration, the number of child abductions was likely to rise, he said.
"I know some non-Hague Convention countries will still return children, but some won't and, without a central authority, there's no incentive for that country to search for them.
"You'd have to advise someone over there, a lawyer who may have to hire a private investigator to try and find where the child is, and then make the application to the court over there, and try and get the child returned. That does happen from time to time - it's a more tricky business.
"I think, if it's becoming a bigger problem, we may need to toughen up or look at ways at the airport where we can check that children, when one parent's leaving with a child to go overseas, that they're not taken away permanently.
"At the end of the day, that's the only chance you've got, is when they're leaving through the airport."
Henaghan had good friends in London who used to remove abducted children from dangerous countries, but he said it was a risky business.
"I wouldn't advise people to do that, but that does happen from time to time, because it's the only option," he said. "That country's not going to return the children and not even going to be able to look for them, so they don't see it as their issue - some countries take that view."
The Ministry of Justice also publishes numbers for children who have been brought to or kept in New Zealand against a parent's wishes.
On average, about 30 youngsters have been in that situation over the last few years, not including the years with Covid-related border restrictions.
In those cases, the Family Court decides whether the child should return to the country they usually live in.
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