The Carrascosa case has sparked interest in cross border custody cases in general. An article in today’s El País, “Llevo Años Buscando a Mi Hijo” reports that the Spanish Ministry of Justice received almost 500 petitions in regard to child abduction between January 2007 and June 2009. More than half the cases concern abducted children who are believed to be in Spain. The rest deal with children taken to other countries.
The article briefly recounts the stories of two abductions still unresolved. The first involves an Estonian mother and Peruvian father, separated and living in Spain. The father took their son to Peru over a year ago and the mother has not seen the boy since. The second story is about a Spanish mother and Algerian father who were living in the UK when they separated in 2004. The father took their young children to Algeria shortly afterward and the mother has had difficulties seeing them. Algeria has not signed the Hague Convention on Child Abduction and that may complicate the children’s return.
Brazil is a signatory. Even so, David Goldman had to wait five years before the Brazilian courts ordered his son Sean´s return to the USA. In her “Motherlode” blog in the New York Times, Lisa Belkin asked her readers to weigh in on the case. The majority of the 170 responses she received supported Goldman’s claim, calling the matter a simple case of child abduction.
