an Irish-Maltese boy kidnapped in France urges Ireland’s Member of Parliament to demand action
A family dispute involving an Irish-Maltese boy led an Irish deputy to request that the two-year-old boy be flown back to Ireland.
According to the Irish timesthe two-year-old boy was taken from his mother’s arms by armed members of the French gendarmerie in May, while an appeal against that court-ordered removal is still pending.
The mother, who on Facebook lists a Maltese real estate agency as her place of work, told the Irish newspaper that she did not know that the boy’s father had taken legal action to bring the boy back to Malta .
The case has now been taken up by Fianna Fáil MP Cathal Crowe.
He called on the Irish government to intervene, saying the toddler has an Irish passport.
“We need something to be said politically about this case,” Mr Crowe said.
The baby was born to the Irish woman and her Maltese boyfriend at the time in Malta in December 2019 and has Maltese citizenship.
Last December, the two parents and their children traveled from Malta to France. The mother stayed in France with her son after she and the boy’s father argued.
The father says she did it without his consent.
Robert Thake, a Maltese lawyer who represents the father, says that the mother “ran away” with her child.
Thake requested the return of custody of the children under the Hague Abduction Convention, a treaty that deals with cases where a parent takes a child to another jurisdiction without the other parent’s consent.
He succeeded in that legal bid, with the Court ruling that the mother effectively “lived in Malta” and that the child had a “large family and a stable home” in the country.
The Court also ordered a ban on the publication of the child’s name or any details that could lead to the child being identified.
She appealed that decision, but French police officers executed the order six days later, took the boy and returned him to his father in Malta.
The Irish Deputy Crowe said that the case was extremely distressing and asked the department of foreign affairs of Ireland to offer the woman its assistance.
A spokesman for that department told the Irish times which does not comment on individual cases but “is aware of this case and has provided advice to the citizen.”
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