What is Parental Child Abduction?
When a parent and a child seek to move away from the other parent to a new town, state or country, they must obtain permission from the other parent before doing so. If permission cannot be obtained form the other parent they will need to seek permission from the Family Court to do so. This is called interstate or overseas relocation. See our family law blogs Relocation of Children and Interim Relocation of Children for more information in relation to this topic. If a parent fails to seek consent before relocating your children interstate or overseas, this is sometimes known as parental child abduction.
What can I do to prevent Parental Child Abduction from occurring?
If you are concerned about parental child abduction, i.e. that the other parent may attempt to remove your children from Brisbane or Queensland without your consent, you should seek urgent advice from our experienced Brisbane Family & Divorce Lawyers about your individual circumstances. Prevention is always better than cure.
We can put in place swift measures in order to prevent the removal of your child from the state or from Australia, for example by:
- Seeking an urgent Order for a pace alert in order to prevent the children from leaving Australia;
- Seeking an urgent Order to restrain the parent from relocating the children interstate;
- Seeking further orders for the children’s Passports to be held by the Family Court;
- Liaising with the Federal Police to prevent the children from leaving Australia;
- Apply for notifications of any Passport applications.
You should also seek to retain the child’s passport.
Check out our article on Airport Watchlist orders, which describes some of the preventative measures you can take in order to stop your child from being removed from Australia in the first place.
What if the other parent has already taken my child interstate/overseas?
If the other parent has already taken your children to another state or country unilaterally, without your consent, you should equally seek urgent legal advice from our Brisbane Family & Divorce Lawyers about your individual circumstances. We can take urgent action with respect to the parental child abduction to increase the prospects of you being able to successfully seek the return of the children to their prior location by:
- Seeking urgent orders that the children be returned by the other parent;
- Seeking an urgent order for a Pace Alert to prevent the other parent travelling interstate/internationally with the children in the future;
- Filing an urgent application pursuant to the Hague Convention seeking the return of your children to Australia if your children have been taken to a Hague Convention Country.
Unfortunately, parental child abduction for separated couples is increasingly common.
For more information or if you have any questions or concerns in relation to your children being unilaterally relocated/abducted without your consent, contact us to book a reduced rate clean slate consultation and you will receive tailored advice from our experienced Brisbane Family & Divorce Lawyers about your individual circumstances.
