Soaring Scots child abductions by overseas parents

Campaigners have stepped up calls for a change in Scots law to tackle international abductions of children by a parents o ve r s e a s a f t e r n e w f i g u r e s revealed a soaring number of cases in the past decade.

Dozens of new “international ab duction” cases happ en every year in Scotland having previously stood in single figures in 2007.

The practice has been branded “child abuse” by campaigners who say there is a “stark difference” between Scotland and England over the issue. It is a criminal offence south of the Border. In Scotland, police cannot act until a court order has been obtained – which can take anywhere between a day and a week.

The figures revealed by justice secretar y Michael Math- e s o n i n a P a r l i a m e n t a r y answer yesterday shows that there were 33 cases parental child abduction for Scotland in 2016. Although this is down f r o m t h e 4 1 c a s e s r e c o r d - ed i n 2015, i t i s nonetheless a marked i ncrease fr om the eight cases recorded in 2007.

Most involved cases of children being taken out of Scotl a n d , whi c h r e a c h e d a n e w high of 20 last year – up from two in 2007.

India, Australia, the US, Italy and Poland are among the countries where children have been taken, according to support charity Reunite International.

S o l i c i t o r Yo u s i f Ahmed i s now cal l i ng f or a c hange i n law which would mean parents not needing to go through the lengthy process of securing a court order before police can act.

“That’s not fit for purpose – all it takes is a few clicks of a mouse button to book a sameday f l i ght and t he chil d can potentially be gone and l ost forever,” he said.

Many parents won’t be aware that an abduction is looming which means they won’t be in a position to secure an interdict.

Mr Ahmed is to meet S cottish Government officials to push for change.

V i c k y M a y e s o f R e u n i t e International said i t’s a par - ticular problem for Scots parents who f ear an ab duction may be imminent.

“It’s so stark, the difference, when you’re advising one parent in England and one parent in Scotland. There can be such a difference in what the police can do and what can be done to stop a child from being ab ducted and t herein minimise the impact of all of this on that child.”