IRISH AUTHORITIES received 136 cases of child abduction last year, a slight drop on the number of cases notified in 2008.
In 75 of these cases, a child or children were taken from the Republic against the wishes of a parent or guardian. The remaining 61 cases involve a child or children brought into the State by a parent or guardian, who may not have the legal right to custody.
Some 183 children are caught up in these abduction cases, which have been referred to the Central Authority for Child Abduction within the Department of Justice.
There were 141 cases of child abduction received by the Irish authorities during 2008, which also involved 183 children.
New figures released by Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern yesterday show 53 cases involve children being abducted from or to England and Wales. Poland (16 cases), Northern Ireland (9) and Latvia (8) are the other countries with a large number of cases.
The Central Authority for Child Abduction also carried over 86 abduction cases from 2008, which had not been dealt with. This meant it processed 222 cases last year, which were dealt with under various international legal conventions aimed at returning children who have been removed from one state to another without consent.
Half of the 222 cases dealt with children brought to the Republic.
In seven cases, the High Court ordered the return of the children to the country from where they were taken. In five cases, the High Court refused the return of the children and in 16 cases the children were voluntarily returned or the parties reached an agreement.
There were 52 cases awaiting resolution at the end of 2009.
In 10 of the 111 outgoing cases, where children were taken from Ireland without consent, foreign courts ordered their return.
In three cases, the foreign court refused the return of the child and in six cases the children were either voluntarily returned or an agreement was reached.
More than half of the 222 applications dealt with by the Central Authority for Child Abduction in 2009 were made under the Hague convention, which is designed to ensure the immediate return of children who have been removed from one contracting state to another. This usually occurs when one parent defies the wishes of the other parent.
The convention is based on the principle that the custody of a child should be decided by courts in the state in which the child habitually resides.
- Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins has criticised the Government for failing to put in place an international missing children hotline.
Mr Higgins said 11 EU states had established a joint hotline in order to have an early alert system put in place in relation to missing children.