Getting a chld from the jungle after parental child abduction, in a country which is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on Child Abduction has been one of the biggest challenges so far.
A Dutch lady in Hurghada
The story started a long time ago when a beautiful Dutch lady came to Hurghada for diving, she fall in love with a diver, spent some time in the relationship that turned to be marriage. The diver who is an Egyptian man from a very far suburb area in Upper Egypt moved with the beautiful Dutch lady to the Netherlands. She helped him to find a job and start a new life specially after getting a Dutch passport too.
Their life in The Netherlands
After some time, they were gifted a very smart beautiful boy, the boy is the heart of both parents. But it seems that happy stories are only in the movies!
Their life turned dramatically when the diver’s brother died and the diver had to go back to Egypt for some arrangements regarding to the funeral and inheritance. Due to some familial arrangements the diver had to marry his brother’s widow and he was gifted a daughter from her.
The beautiful Dutch lady discovered the fact that she has become a second wife without any prior notice. Disputes started .. The diver had his own plan..
The diver and the Dutch lady agreed on separation and she had been very kind to him, which she regretted later!
A trip to Hurghada
The diver managed to convince the Dutch lady to come to Hurghada to spend some days off, this could help her to calm down. Here the real sad story started;
While the Dutch lady sitting by the sea enjoying the Hurghada nice weather, the diver told her that he would go back to the room as their child forgot to bring his slippers.. the diver and the child should have come back to the beach in a few minutes…
Minutes passed, some hours passed, the diver’s phone is switched off !
Father and child disappeared
The lady went back to her room very worried, she found that the diver had taken his clothes and the child clothes and passport and disappeared! The lady called tourism police who made a report that the diver took the child and disappeared .. No more than this !
At this moment, the Dutch lady contacted our office and we manged to get her a decision from the public prosecution in Hurghada to take her child back. Unfortunately, the diver left Hurghada to Luxor ( 5 hours by car) to the rural area where he was born. We – as a law firm- managed to track him and transfer the public prosecution’s decision of delivery of the child to Luxor’s authorities.
In Luxor, after a very long day, moving from one police department to another.. passing by thousands of questions about the religion of the lady, whether the marriage is still or not , and explaining the difficulties of the performance of the public prosecution decision, we managed to get the boy back, but under a condition;
Forced reconciliation
Considering the fact that the rural community can’t tolerate the fact that their boy was taken from them, the police chief told the lady that so long as marriage is still , why don’t you take your child with your man and stay in a hotel for some time.. wounds might vanish!
The lady under the pressure of happiness of finding her son after 7 months of disappearance and the pressure of fear to lose him again if the police didn’t help, she agreed to this settlement and she went with her man (the diver ) and the child (son) to a hotel in Luxor ; the city.
Kidnapped again
After 12 days, the lady became a victim of domestic violence and her son was kidnapped again! The police didn’t help in this case alleging that a father can’t be blamed on taking his son and the mother has to gain a new court / prosecution order to take the child back again.
Lessons to be learned
We are working now on getting the child back again, but some lessons should be learnt from stories like this;
– Egypt is not a signatory to the Hague convention on child abduction so that you can’t expect that a foreign decision of the delivery of child will be valid in Egypt.
– Egyptian courts are very conservative regarding to foreign marriages and foreign disputes arising from such marriages. The custody of children is a pure right of the mother, but if the mother isn’t Egyptian or not living permanently in Egypt, the courts will not help a lot.
– Custody of children is for the mother if she is a Muslim, but if the father raises the argument that he is afraid of changing the child’s religion or bringing him up in a way that contradicts Sharia law, the courts might consider it a very valid reason not to give the custody to the mother.
– Taking children by their father is not considered abduction until the mother gets an order from the court that proves custody for her to the children which usually takes some time at the Egyptian courts.
If you have serious fears towards your partner/ husband regarding taking children from you, never hesitate to consult a lawyer before you fall in to the trap.
Mohamed Hassanein – ElAttar Law Firm, Cairo Egypt
Read more about child abduction and child relocation in Egypt
Read more about Child Abduction