What to do if your child has been abducted and taken overseas

International parental child abduction happens when a parent or guardian takes a child out of the country where the child lives without the other parent's permission or a court's authority, or keeps the child overseas after an agreed trip. It most often follows a separation.

What you can do depends on one question: has the child already left Australia?

If you fear a child may be taken

Speed matters here. Once a child has left, getting them back is slow, expensive and uncertain.

Call the police in an emergency

If you believe a child is about to be taken out of the country, call your local police straight away. The Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department gives the same advice.

Get the child on the Family Law Watchlist

The Australian Federal Police keep the Family Law Watchlist. A child on it is flagged to police when they try to leave Australia, so the AFP can stop the child travelling.

The AFP will only place a child on the Watchlist if there is a court order, an application for one, or an appeal on foot. The order sought must do two things:

(a) limit or prevent the child's overseas travel; and

(b) ask the AFP to place the child on the Family Law Watchlist.

The AFP says it prefers orders that restrict travel for a defined period of up to three years. Once you have filed the application, you send it, under the court's seal, to the AFP with the AFP's request form. The court will not send an application to the AFP for you, though it usually sends a sealed order the same day it is made.

In Western Australia these applications are made to the Family Court of Western Australia, whether the parents were married or not. Where there is a risk the child will be taken, the court can also order that a passport or other travel document be handed over.

Taking a child overseas can be a crime

Once a parenting order is in place, or parenting proceedings have started, it is a criminal offence to take or send a child out of Australia without the written consent of every person the law requires, or a court order. It is also an offence to keep a child overseas beyond what that consent or order allows. The maximum penalty is three years' imprisonment.

For children whose parents were married, these offences are in ss 65Y to 65ZAA of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth). For children of parents who were never married, the equivalent WA offences are in ss 107 to 108A of the Family Court Act 1997 (WA). There is an exception where the conduct was needed to protect someone from family violence.

If the child has already been taken overseas

A recovery order will not help once a child is outside Australia. The Family Court of Western Australia says so on its own recovery orders page. The route depends on where the child has been taken.

A country where the Hague Convention applies

Australia is a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Between countries where it is in force, it provides a process for the prompt return of a child who has been wrongfully removed from, or kept away from, the country where they usually live. The court in the other country decides whether the child goes back. It does not decide the long-term parenting arrangements. Those are decided later, in the country the child is returned to.

To start, you apply to the Australian Central Authority, in the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department. It sends the application to the central authority in the other country, which may take it to court there. The Department also says it may be able to help where a child has been taken to Egypt or Lebanon, which have separate arrangements with Australia. You can call the Australian Central Authority on 1800 100 480. The Attorney-General's Department website keeps the current list of countries where the Convention is in force for Australia.

Apply as soon as you can. Delay makes return harder: if proceedings start a year or more after the child was wrongfully removed or kept, the other court may refuse to send them back if they have settled in their new home.

A country where the Convention does not apply

The options are narrower. The Consular Branch of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade can give limited help, and can be reached at any hour on 1300 555 135. You may also need a lawyer in the other country, and the Attorney-General's Department runs a scheme that may help with some of the costs. International Social Service Australia can also assist.

A note on what else is affected

A child's removal often happens alongside a separation that also has to deal with the home, the money and superannuation. Those questions still have their own time limits, and they do not wait for the parenting dispute to end.

This article is general information, not legal advice.