Child Abduction

decimal

I'm posting for as much information as possible for a friend living in Australia. She's in Australia, 3 years, her relationship broke down....daughter with the ex. Not married. Daughter ran off, moved in with dad, dad met and had an affair with Australian women....plus remarried. He has taken the daughter back to Uk, daughter has Irish/UK passport, removed without mother's consent. Any advice please, she is in a mess!!! Any where she turns in Australia she's redirected to solicitors that cost a fortune, currently looking for sponsorship, to secure residency for her daughter's wishes. Please, please, any help appreciated....where can she turn to.

Peregrinus

Wait, now. We can't help if we don't know what she wants.

The picture is that your friend is living n Australia, and has been for the last three years. Your friend has a daughter who lives with her father. You don't say how old the daughter is, but she "ran off" to live with her father, which tells us that she is at least old enough to (a) form a preference as to which parent she wishes to live with, and (b) try to give effect to that preference. You also mention "her daughter's wishes" to have Australian residency, so the daughter is clearly old enough to have opinions and desires with regard to thing like visa status. So we're not talking an infant htere.

The daughter has both Irish and UK passports. Plus, the father took her "back to" the UK. So I'm guess her father is a UK citizen.

You don't say how long ago this happened, or whether it happened in Ireland, before your friend left, or in Australia, since she arrived. You also don't say whether there was any court order in Ireland or in Australia dealing with custody/access issues, which would be a key issue.

You don't say - and this is the key thing - what outcome your friend wants. Is it to have the girl returned to her in Australia? Is it to have the Australian courts make a ruling about custody for the girl? Is it something else?

As for your friend being redirected to "solicitors that cost a fortune", yes, this will likely cost money. How could it not? Ireland, Australia and the UK are all parties to the Hague Convention on Child Abduction, and if the girl has been removed from either Ireland or Australia to the UK in breach of your friend's rights - especially if this is a breach of a court order - there is a remedy, which involves the UK courts ordering that the girl be returned to Australia so that the Australian courts can deal with the matter. But it's not a remedy that your friend can access without legal advice in the country the girl was taken from - whether that be Ireland or the UK - and also in England, and this will cost money. There's no way around that.

I think a preliminary consultation with a lawyer is the way to go. Yes, she'll have to pay for that, but she'll know where she stands. He can get the relevant facts out of her and advise her whether there is any prospect of court proceedings having the outcome that she wants. (If the girl is old enough, and wishes to live with her father, that is likely how this will end.) He can also advise her, if there is a prospect of success, how long it will take and how much it will cost.