International child abduction

Cecilia was warmly referred to PCLC by a member of her community in Melbourne as part of the Centre’s Strengthening Legal Pathways for CALD Women. Cecilia was emotionally and physically abused by her ex-husband, including during her pregnancy. Cecilia separated from her ex-husband while pregnant and was the sole parent of her young son. Her ex-husband had connections to Australia and controlled Cecilia’s visa status to the extent that she was not aware that she had been granted a visa to Australia. Throughout her son’s life, he lived with Cecilia and her ex-husband only spent time with the son under supervision, and there were Court orders in place to this effect. The father regularly threatened that he would abduct the son and take him to Australia, and that Cecilia would not see him again. Cecilia did everything she could to try to protect her son by reporting the threats to the police, the passport office and Australian immigration authorities that the son may be at risk of being removed from her homeland.

Nevertheless, the father obtained a passport for the son and took him to Australia without Cecilia’s knowledge or consent, and in contravention of the Court orders made in Cecilia’s country of origin. There were no Australian Court orders relating to the child. Our family law lawyer had to conduct research as to Cecilia’s rights to take legal action in Australia to locate and recover the child and to make enquiries as to any financial assistance/funding available to Cecilia if legal action could be taken given that she was located overseas. While these inquiries were being undertaken, the father commenced parenting proceedings in an interstate registry of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia seeking orders relating to the son. Our lawyer referred Cecilia to the Legal Aid Commission in that state, which provided an almost immediate grant of aid to Cecilia to provide a family lawyer in that state to represent her and assist her to respond to the father’s application. Surprisingly, the father then withdrew his application for parenting orders. With the assistance of her interstate lawyer, Cecilia was able to apply for her own parenting orders.

In the end, orders were made by consent for Cecilia to come to Australia to collect the son and return to the country in which they reside. The consent orders also included an order that the son be placed on the airport watch list so that the father cannot remove the son from Australia in the meantime. PCLC is supporting Cecilia with further assistance to enable her to reunite with her son. Without our family lawyer’s extensive knowledge and legal strategy, Cecilia and her son may have received a very different outcome.