Mother asks MP’s to push Middle Eastern allies to join Hague Convention on Child Abduction

Millions of British and European nationals live in the Middle East and many more Middle Easterners live in Britain and Europe. As political alliances strengthen, so do business partnerships, friendships and romantic relationships but many of them end in divorce and where there are children involved, they are at risk of abduction.

“It’s all too common a story”, says Radha Stirling, founder of Due Process International and the Gulf in Justice Podcast. “Over the past decade, we have seen a number of distraught mothers and fathers who have suffered the ultimate loss, that of a child. Our Gulf allies are not signatories to the Hague Convention against international child abduction and do not recognise European custody orders. This gives the green light to a parent to violate local European laws, abduct their child and seek refuge in the Middle East, depriving the child of one parent”.

Maud Quinault has been left fighting for her now 6 year old son Fahad-Louis after his father, Omani national Amur al-Maamari, violated a French court order. “He said he was taking our son to Disneyland and I believed him”, Maud told Due Process International. “I found out he took our son to Madrid where he obtained an emergency travel document and fled to Oman. I haven’t seen my son since”.