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¡Mr. Tim Eggar)
Oluronke Owoscia
20 DECEMBER 1985
quested, to try to obtain from the local authorities a report on the child's welfare: and thirdly, to give any assistance they can in connection with granting access to the children, including if necessary offering facilities where a meeting with the children could take place. Further, after consultation with our consular department in London, officially or unofficially they can draw to the attention of the local authorities information about British court orders affecting the children: they can do what they properly can to help bring about a speedy conclusion of any legal proceedings dealing with the child's custody; and finally, they can approach the local authorities for help in tracing abducted minors.
However, the situation is made more difficult if the child or children concerned, as well as being British, are citizens of the country where they are being held-in other words, dual nationals. It is a matter of internationally accepted practice that a consular officer cannot afford protection to dual nationals in the country of their second nationality. Any representations on their behalf have to be informal and, sadly, the authorities of the country concerned would be within their rights to say that the British Government had no standing to intervene.
My hon. Friend referred to the Child Abduction Act 1985, which came into effect in October last year. The purpose of the Act is to try to reduce, and ideally to eliminate, the incidence of child abduction from this country. Under its terms, the abduction of a child, even by one of its parents or guardians, is a criminal offence. Anyone suspecting that a child is at risk of abduction can inform the Home Office. A warning will then be sent immediately to pons and airports.
Furthermore, child abduction is an extraditable offence. If a child has been abducted to a country with which the United Kingdom has an extradition treaty, it is for the police and the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide whether action for the extradition of the offender could and should be initiated. However, even if the offender were extradited to this country, that of itself would not necessarily guarantee the return of the child. Unfortunately, in several cases reported to us during the past year, the abduction has been unexpected, and the offender has left the country before the ports could be warned. That happened in the case with which my hon. Friend is concerned.
The problem of child abduction affects not only this country; it is worldwide. As my hon. Friend knows, two international conventions came into force in the second half of 1983. Their purpose is to achieve some mutual recognition of the court orders of wardship or custody of one country in another and to help right the wrongs of child abduction. Those conventions are the European conven- tion on Recognition and Enforcement of decisions concerning Custody of Children and on estoration of Custody of Children, and the Hague Convention on the Civil aspects of international Child Abduction. The United Kingdom is a signatory of both conventions, but we have not yet ratified them. The Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985 will enable us to ratify both conventions when it comes into force. We hope to do that some time next
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Oiuronke Owoseja
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year. The terms of the conventions are incorporated in the Act, which will give them the force of law in the United Kingdom.
The terms of the conventions can be applied only between states which have ratified them. Although the existence of the conventions is a step in the right direction. their wider effectiveness will depend on future ratification by other signatories, and the number fo cases for which solutions may be sought will be limited by the number of countries who have ratiñed the conventions. At present there are no proposals to make bilateral agreements with countries that have not acceded to the convertions.
I turn to the specific case which my hon. Friend raised so ably today. It must be considered against the background that I have just outlined. The case is expremely sad, and has caused considerable anguish and distress to the child's foster mother, Mrs. Dwyer.
Oluronke was born in London in 1970 to Nigerian parents. She is a British citizen by birth, but also a Nigerian citizen. When she was three months old, she was fostered to my hon. Friend's constituents. Mr. and Mrs. Dwyer. In 1976, Oluronke was made a ward of court, and care and control were granted to Mr. and Mrs. Dwyer. Furthermore, when Mr. Dwyer sadly died, the court granted care and control to Mrs. Dwyer alone. However, the court stressed that Oluronke's natural parents were to be allowed reasonable access, and during an access visit her mother abducted her to Nigeria.
I well understand Mrs. Dwyer's anxiety for Oluronke's welfare and her desire that Oluronke should rerum to the United Kingdom. It must be fragic when someone to whom one has dedicated 13 years of love and care is suddenly snatched away. I fully sympathise with Mrs. Dwyer, and my heart goes out to her. I cannot do other than condemn the act of abduction which was in direct breach of a United Kingdom court order. Oluronke is now at the home of her natural mother and grandfather. She is living in her grandfather's house, which in the context of the Nigerian extended family is not as unusual as it would be in the United Kingdom As she is still a minor, she may not leave Nigeria without the permission of her natural parents.
As my hon. Friend said, both her mother and grandfather are opposed to her rerum. Oluronke is now attending school, and we understand that she has made some friends of her own age. That is help, albeit to a small degree. As she is a Nigerian child living with her natural family in Nigeria. she is subject to Nigerian law, and I am sorry to say that our high commission in Lagos has no formal standing intervene in her case.
When Oluronke is 18 she will be able to apply in her own right for a British passport, to which she would be entitled, and, travelling under that passport, she would be able to return to the Luted Kingdom without any let or hindrance.
The message that I must give my hon. Friend is especially sad and harsh. He has done everything that he can to assist his constituent and has asked me to give an assurance that we shall not give up. He has not given up. and I gladly assure him that we shall not give up. I wish Oluronke well, and I hope that it will not be too long before she is reunited with Mrs. Dwyer.
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