KAREN Hassan yesterday marked her daughter Zena's seventh birthday with tears and a longing to hold her.
Stolen by her Lebanese father, Ahmed, in the wreckage of her parents'
break-up, Zena has not been seen in Australia since March 2001.
Stolen by her Lebanese father, Ahmed, in the wreckage of her parents'
break-up, Zena has not been seen in Australia since March 2001.
Increasing family breakdowns have seen the number of children
illegally taken from Australia by a non-custodial parent more than
triple in the 15 years.
Last financial year, the Federal Attorney-General's Department
made 97 approaches to foreign countries where a parent had illegally
taken a child from Australia. That figure is up from 27 in 1988-89 and
62 just five years ago. Relationships Australia sees it as a sign
of increasingly fractured families.
"This is at the extreme end but it is an example of how stressful
family breakdowns can be and that some people are not getting the
advice and help that they need," NSW chief executive officer Anne
Hollonds said. Mrs Hassan, 30, believes her ex-husband took Zena
as punishment for her decision to leave their marriage. "I still
keep a diary every day and I write notes to her," she said through
tears.
"I even talk to her. I know it sounds crazy, but it helps to get
me through." The only contact she has had was a call from Ahmed
some months after he left with his daughter to visit family in Lebanon.
He said Zena would never return. "I've tried to take every
avenue to get her back but all the doors keep getting shut in your
face," Mrs Hassan said. Australia is one of 64 countries that
work under the Hague Convention to help children in these cases;
Lebanon is not among them.
Although they are charged with investigating these type of
abductions, the Australian Federal Police declined to comment.
The problem is not confined to children taken overseas.
The WA-based support group Hug-Ur-Kids believes more than 1000 children
are abducted by Australian parents and hidden here every year.
www.hug-ur-kids.org.au
<http://www.hug-ur-kids.org.au>
Group founder Geoff Day said most abducted children are found within
weeks but he knows of one father whose two daughters have been missing
10 years.
"The act of abduction is a spiteful act and the children are the
collateral damage caught in between," he said. The Family Law
Court and Federal Magistrates Court list missing children on their
websites: <http://www.familycourt.gov.au>and www.fmc.gov.au
<http://www.fmc.gov.au>
Among those listed are Anthony Fowler, now 6, missing from
Canberra with his mother Angela since 1999; Kazabel Benoit, 6, taken
from Melbourne by her father Scott in April last year; James McNally,
now 8, who disappeared with his mother in 1996; Rebekah Stewart, aged
4, taken from New Zealand by her mother last year and believed to be in
Australia; Lachlan Sawyer, now 5, who disappeared from Adelaide with
his mother Vanessa in 2000.
SOURCE: The Sunday Telegraph
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