As international travel has become more and more accessible, one thing that, sadly, has been becoming increasingly common is international parental child abduction. International parental child abduction is when one parent takes a child to another country to interfere with the other parent’s custody rights.
International parental child abduction can be incredibly impactful on the child involved and the parent who has had the child abducted from them. Sadly, a custodial parent who has had a child abducted from them to another country can sometimes face major legal hurdles in getting their child back.
Recently, some news has arisen regarding an international parental child abduction case involving a Texas man.
The man was married to a Russian-born woman. The two lived in Texas together and they had two daughters.
The man and the woman eventually got divorced. In the divorce, the man was granted custody of the former couple’s two daughters.
In 2008, the unthinkable happened to the man; his daughters were abducted by his ex-wife to a foreign country. Specifically, during one of her visitations with the children, the woman took the children to Russia. The children have been in Russia ever since, as issues regarding the Russian legal system reportedly prevented the man from being able to retake custody of the children.
It appears that the man may now finally be able to get his daughters back. Recently, the man’s ex-wife died. This reportedly makes it so the man no longer just has custody of the children under U.S. law, but also has custody of the children under Russian law. However, there still could be some challenges awaiting the man in his efforts to reunite with his daughters.
The man reportedly plans to go to Russia next month to try to get his daughters back. One wonders what will ultimately happen during this trip.
As this case shows, child custody matters with international aspects, such as child custody matters involving international parental child abduction, can be incredibly complicated. Thus, if a person is involved in a child custody matter with international aspects, having a strong and experienced family law attorney on one’s side can be very important.
Source: KHOU, “Hope arises for dad in custody battle for daughters taken to Russia,” Jim Douglas, June 20, 2013