Over 100 children abducted here each year

MORE than 100 children are abducted by one or other of their parents in Ireland each year, an Oireachtas committee has been told.

The cases were equally divided between children brought into the country by a parent and children living here who were taken abroad, Ms Mary Banotti MEP told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Women's Rights.

However, Ms Banotti said Ireland was fortunate in having so few missing children. Only two children are officially missing here, whereas a US agency deals with 367,000 cases a year.

Many children are abducted from Ireland to the UK or vice versa. Other cases involve abduction to or from the US, and are difficult to resolve because of the legal expenses.

Some cases resulted from holiday romances the "Shirley Valentine syndrome" - started in resorts like the Costa Brava, the Greek Islands or Torremolinos, she said. In many of these countries it was almost impossible to get the police to treat the cases seriously.

Cases of child abduction are dealt with under The Hague Convent ion. This provides for children to be returned to their country of residence, where matters of custody and access can be settled by the local courts.

Ms Banotti was giving evidence in her role as the European Parliament's mediator on abducted children. She said the number of eases her office has dealt with was steadily increasing, and had reached 18 so far this year.

She criticised the fact that the number of missing children in the EU was unknown. "Interpol told us initially there were 60 then 200, but the truth is they don't have a clue." However, there had been a huge increase in interest in the issue since the Dutroux case broke in Belgium in August.

"The Belgian case has shown that an abducted child can be whisked out of the country in 10 minutes, thereby highlighting the need for greater international Co operation."

Ms Banotti proposed that Europol, the European agency dealing with the trafficking of drugs and people, should also be given responsibility for missing children.

Responding to questions from members of the committee, she gave several examples of cases in which children had been abducted by their parents. In one, a couple living in Cork went on holidays to Spain with their twin children and two further children from her previous marriage.

The man suggested his partner stay on for an extra week's holiday with the latter children, while he returned to Glengarriff with the four year old twins. The mother later returned to Ireland to find her partner had left for the south of France with their children. She has not seen them since they disappeared in July.

Ms Banotti said she frequently worked with Reunite, a British voluntary agency for missing and abducted children, which has produced a child abduction prevention pack. Parents who fear their children may be at risk of abduction are advised to photograph them regularly. The pack also includes a fingerprinting kit.

The committee chairwoman, Ms Mary Wallace, said she would write to the Departments of Equality and Law Reform and Justice recommending that such a pack be made available here.