- Home
- Our services
- About us
- Social
- Free legal advice
- Useful info
- Helpful links
- Important definitions
- FAQs
- Fact sheets
- Divorce Factsheet
- Civil partnerships
- Moving abroad
- Annulment and judicial separation
- Money - following divorce
- Assisted conception
- Separation agreements
- Collaborative law
- Mediation
- Cohabitation agreements
- Care proceedings
- Special guardianship order
- Residence/contact
- Child abduction
- Adoption
- Surrogacy
- Domestic abuse
- Money - following living together
- Publications
- National accolade for Michelmores family lawyer
- Simon Thomas – My Working Week
- Custody - Access 20 Years out of date
- Michelmores adopt Families for Children charity
- Forced Adoption – is that right?
- Panorama questions whether everyone should be allowed to have children.
- Lawyers donate presents for abused families
- Collaborative law - Divorce
- The Supreme Court rules Pre–Nuptial Agreements have legal status
- Time for a national adoption agency?
- Wear a smile today!
- Prime Minister adds his weight to adoption transformation
- Women lawyers win Children’s Panel Appointments
- Keeping in the family
- Adoption falling?
- Michelmores awarded Legal Services Commission contract
- Gifts for families at Christmas
- Impact of spending cuts on children and young people services in Devon
- Michelmores Family Law - Who’s investigating you?
- Sun, sea and separation
- Postcode lottery
- Exeter family lawyer agrees to lecture at Plymouth University
- How to pay
- Contact us
Child abduction
International child abduction is the taking or keeping hold of a child across an international border by one parent, either in breach of a Court Order or without the consent of the other parent. In most circumstances, it is a criminal offence.
This may sound like a situation most people are unlikely to face, but if you are a divorced or separated parent, taking your child abroad, without the permission of the other parent, or a Court Order, could legally be seen as international child abduction.
Michelmores child abduction team
The Legal Services Commission
The Legal Services Commission (LSC) runs the legal aid scheme in England and Wales . We work in partnership with solicitors and not-for-profit organisations to provide information, advice and legal representation to people in need. We also make sure that people get the information, advice and legal help they need to deal with a wide range of problems.
- Tel: 0845 345 4345
- Website: http://www.legalservices.gov.uk
(Michelmores are not responsible for third party website contents).
My child has been taken abroad. Is there anything I can do?
In most circumstances – yes. If the country to which your child has been taken is a member of one of the international child abduction conventions, there will be immediate steps you can take. Urgent legal advice is required.
How can I prevent my child from being abducted?
There are steps you can take. For example, you can obtain a Court Order, prevent a passport being issued and, in urgent situations, request an All Ports Warning.
What is child abduction?
The removal or retention of a child across an international border (abroad) by one parent, which is either in breach of a Court Order or is without the consent of the other person.
Is it a criminal offence for one parent to abduct a child?
In most circumstances, yes and you should contact your local police station. In theory, if the other parent of your child takes the child abroad, without your consent, this is international child abduction.
Child abduction
Once a relatively rare occurrence, an increase in mixed nationality marriages, increasing relationship breakdown rates, changes in immigration laws and cheap foreign travel have seen a rise in international child abduction.
