Missing Children

International abductions increased dramatically in 2000 with 1,697 cases, a 67 percent increase over 1999. In such cases the FBI, the Customs Service, the Secret Service, and Interpol become involved. 1,374 children of the 1,697 abducted were located (Ragavan 2001). Interpol is a 178-nation police communications network that enables police forces around the world to coordinate international criminal investigations. The FBI is the U.S. law enforcement agency responsible for investigating international parental kidnapping cases. The FBI legal attaché stationed at U.S. embassies abroad may try to confirm the location of the abductor and the child and may request assistance from local law enforcement personnel in that country (National Criminal Justice Reference Service [NCJRS] 2002).

The International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC) was launched in 1999 as a global response to the problems of international child abduction and child sexual exploitation. This global network transmits images, which are updated daily, of missing and exploited children via the Internet. It currently features over 2,600 children from eleven participating countries (Allen 2001). Because ICMEC includes exploited children in their data, these numbers do not correspond directly to the Interpol figure of 1,697 international cases.

Although some juveniles are abducted for prostitution or domestic help, most international abductions consist of family abductions. Children are vulnerable to international abduction when relations between parents are problematic and one spouse has close ties to another country—particularly one with laws prejudicial against the gender or citizenship of the other parent. It is important to know the laws and customs of a country before visiting. Abduction may occur when the abducting parent visits his or her (usually his) homeland and decides he wants to stay, making it extremely difficult for the mother to return with the children. Many countries, including the United States, consider both parents to have equal legal custody if there is no custody decree prior to the abduction. Therefore, ensuring that the custody decree prohibits a child traveling abroad without the custodial parent's permission is important.

The parent whose child has been abducted cannot expect much help from his or her own government. Since the late 1970s, the Department of State's Office of Children's Issues have been contacted in the cases of approximately 16,000 children either abducted from the United States or prevented from returning to the United States by one of their parents. However, the U.S. State Department only acts as a information resource by attempting to locate and contact the child, providing the parent information about the other country, and completing applications for The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The U.S. government does not intervene in civil legal matters, enforce U.S. custody agreements overseas, pay legal fees, act as a lawyer, or take custody of children (U.S. Department of State 2001).

However, twenty-three nations agreed to draft a convention to deter international child abduction at the Hague Conference on Private International Law in 1976, and by July 2001 fifty-four other countries had accepted the Convention, including the United States. These countries agreed that a child who is habitually resident in one party country, and who has been removed to or retained in another party country in violation of the other parent's custodial rights, shall be promptly returned to the country of habitual residence (not necessarily that of citizenship). Thus, the Convention is a legal mechanism available to parents seeking the return of or access to their child; it can also help a parent exercise visitation rights abroad. Parents do not need a custody decree to use the Convention, but there is a time limit of one year, so the parent should contact their government immediately after the abduction.

A new U.S. law took effect in July 2001 that requires the signature of both parents prior to issuance of passports to children under the age of fourteen, but the United States cannot revoke a passport already issued (U.S. Department of State 2001). Without exit controls at the border, there is no way to stop someone with valid travel documents from leaving. Many countries do not require passports, so a birth certificate may allow a child to travel outside the country without parental consent. Although many children in these multinational families possess dual citizenship, those with only U.S. citizenship may have a request written in their passport that no visa be offered for that country. No international law requires compliance with such requests.

Abductions in progress can sometimes be stopped at a border or airport. Interdiction usually depends upon the existence of a criminal warrant for the abductor. Governments may be responsive to a Hague application if it is transmitted as urgent (NCJRS 2002).

Although some abducting parents return the child voluntarily when they learn that a Hague application has been or will be filed, the majority of Hague cases require the custodial parent to hire an attorney in the country where the child has been retained and petition the court there for the child's return. Children are recovered through private lawsuits in countries not party to the Hague Convention. Parents generally retain lawyers in the foreign country as well as their home country to assist with the proceedings (NCJRS 2002).