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Preventing Parental International Child Abduction

Preventing parental international child abduction. During the 2013 calendar year, 702 new cases of outgoing and 364 cases of incoming international child abduction were reported to the U.S. Central Authority. Of those cases, the chances of a second abduction are approximately 86 per cent. Most of those second abductions could have been prevented. With the proper knowledge, parents can recognize warning signs of abduction.

Preventing Parental International Child Abduction

One of the ways to prevent international child abduction is the application of strict requirements regarding the issuance and renewal of passports. Currently, the United States does not require exit controls on its borders. Most major air carriers, however, demand the presentation of a valid passport before boarding an aircraft bound for another country. Thus, it is imperative that passports are not issued to children without parental consent. In most cases, if a child already has a passport, it can be very hard to keep a parent from taking the child away from the United States without the other parent’s permission.

Don’t Sign For Your Child’s Passport

Preventing parental international child abduction could be as easy as not signing for your child’s passport.

Abduction Border Exit Controls

United States law requires either parents or legal guardians to sign passport applications for children under sixteen. The parents or legal guardians must provide documentation showing they are parents or guardians. If this requirement is not met, the person applying for the child’s passport must provide documentation that they are the sole parent or guardian of the child.

Technique To Prevent International Child Abduction

Another technique to prevent international child abduction is for parents to be alerted before their child’s passport is issued or renewed. One of the Central Authority’s most valuable mechanisms for preventing international child abduction is the Children’s Passport Issuance Alert Program, or CPIAP. If an application for a passport is turned in for a minor child enrolled in CPIAP, the Department of State will alert the child’s parents or guardians to ask whether or not the parents approve the issuing of the child’s passport.

The CPIAP Program

The CPIAP program only applies to passports issued in the United States. As mentioned earlier, the United States does not employ exit controls. Law enforcement will usually act only if a court order exists to prohibit the minor child leaving the United States. Parents should also be diligent in maintaining current address information with the U.S. Department of State. If parents or children have moved, and the Department of State has not been notified, a passport may be issued to the minor child without parental notice or consent. Passport revocations in these cases are rare.

Abduction is Likely to Recur

Most of the research of child abduction suggests that abduction is likely to recur. Once a person abducts a child and gets away with it, the abductor feels empowered and recidivism is likely. If a child has been previously abducted and returned to his or her family, a parent or guardian can get a restraining order that prevents the other parent or guardian to leave a designated area with the child, without consent. The child’s passport and other records can be amended, in such a way that both parents and guardians must approve of releasing access to the records.

Prevention is Key For Your Child

With all the sensationalism in the media regarding international child abduction, parents may be unduly concerned. Abduction only comprises two percent of all violent crimes against minors. With continued knowledge and proper legislation, parents can be empowered and educated in how to act.

Abduction Stories

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Child Dangers

Child Abduction is Child Abuse. Child recovery is only carried out in a professional manner that will not harm your child. Safety is our first priority.

One thing is for certain, when a child is abducted by a parent, one of the parents is crazy. So if you are the left behind parent reading this, and you’re not crazy, then the abductor most certainly is. Unfortunately crazy child abductors can harm their own children. The abductor is under just as much stress as the left behind parent. Yes, the left behind parent is going through so much, and they often have anger towards the abducting parent and can’t really feel any empathy for what the abducting parent did, but it’s vital to know the situation. And the situation is volatile. So if you have any contact still with the abducting parent, don;t push their buttons, they could kill your child and themselves.

If your Hague Trial for return of child is currently under way, be warned for incearsed stress, which also increases the safety of not just your child and the abducting parent, but also for the left behind parent.

It’s best to remain as calm as possible throughout the abduction and court trials, even visitation. Work calmly with Police and Lawyers.

 

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Causes of Child Abduction

Child Abduction is kidnapping of a minor and it implies two legal categories, which happen for different reasons: abduction by a stranger and abduction by a member of child’s family.

Abduction or child theft by strangers is kidnapping for criminal purposes. Stranger does not necessarily mean that the person is unknown to the child, but that is someone from outside the family. Motives for this kind of abduction vary: it can be for ransom, for slavery, illegal adoption, human trafficking and organ trading, and murder. Abductions of this kind happen more often than reported.

Parental child abduction most commonly happens during parents’ separation or after it, when one of the parents removes the child from the other one because of an awaited child-custody proceeding or fear of domestic violence. These abductions can be within a city, a region, a country or international.

International child abduction comes to pass when a parent or a family member flees a country with a child or children breaking a custody decree. These cases are among the most difficult ones to solve as a result of different international jurisdictions. In order to ease dealing with this kind of problems, some rules were established in the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and the European Convention. Tracking and retrieving children from a non-Hague Convention country is much more difficult. Cases of international child abduction increase every year due to an increase of international marriages. Cultural differences can play a big role in these situations, especially those in child rearing, position of mother and father in family, involvement of extended family in immediate family’s life, role of the family in social life, social structure, religion, etc. Generally, abductors do not appreciate child’s relation with the other parent and often justify their actions as helping the child. In some cases, abductions happen as a part of revenge or as a consequence of some unresolved family matter, and high percentage of children are told that the other parent had abandoned them. International abductions may result with child’s losing a connection to the other half of the family, complete identification with a new culture that can cause loss of the former language, sense of former nationality and even their own name. This can lead to an emotional trauma, depression, loss of community or fear of abandonment. Advantages and benefits of modern-day transportation make it much easier for an abductor to commit the crime and this is also one of the things that affect the increase of international abductions. Similar to this crime is retention, the case of taking a child abroad on a trip and not returning him to a home country.

A common delusion is that children are not in danger in these cases because abductors are members of their families, when in reality, it can result with child’s numerous psychological traumas and at times, they even suffer physical injuries. It is a violation of children’s rights and parental abduction is marked as child abuse.