HL Deb 23 November 1992 vol 540 cc56-7WA
Lord Montagu of Beaulieu

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they have any information about the numbers of children abducted from the United Kingdom and held against their will in countries which are not signatories to any of the international accords on repatriation.

Baroness Chalker of Wallasey

We do not retain statistics on the number of children abducted from the United Kingdom to countries which are not signatories to The Hague or European conventions. The FCO is aware of the distress that removal of children can cause to the parent left behind in the United Kingdom. British Consuls do what they can within the law of the second country to assist, but they cannot intervene in the judicial process of that country, which will often have a different cultural interpretation of family law from that in the United Kingdom.