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The number of cases in which one parent takes his/her child abroad without the other parent´s knowledge has been rising in the Czech Republic, Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes today.
Last year alone, Czech authorities applied for the return of three children from abroad, and on the other hand, the Czech Republic extradited 16 children to foreigners, compared with "only" nine children in 2002, the paper writes.
It says that the post-divorce tug of war for children need not involve foreigners only. The number of cases in which Czech mothers and fathers hide their children from their former partners and are unable to reach agreement has also been rising.
Last year, 1174 divorce suits were not completed because of the parents´ dispute over who will be bringing up the children, compared with 1050 in 2004 and 890 five years ago, MfD writes.
"The motive is in a majority of cases taking revenge on the partner. They (the parents) do not mind that they harm their own children. They often do not respect our verdicts either," MfD quotes a judge who deals with similar cases.
The situation is practically helpless if a parent takes the children to a country with which the Czech Republic does not have an agreement on international kidnappings of children.
This is the case of a 40-year-old man from Brno who is to take care of his 3-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son.
However, he has not seen the children for almost half a year because his former wife is hiding with them in Ukraine where her friend lives. The father has turned to the Office for International Legal Protection of Children, but it was unable to help him, MfD writes.
"Ukraine has not signed with us the convention on international kidnapping of children, so it does not cooperate with us. We can do nothing," Alena Pivodova from the office is quoted as saying.
The children also suffer from the rather harsh metods court executors use sometimes, the paper write and gives the case of a six-year Marie as an example.
The court has ruled that she should spend alternately one month with her father in the Czech Republic and one month with her mother who has moved to Spain to live with her friend.
"The daughter did not want to go to her mother. She (the mother) and her friend twice attempted to take the girl away by force. That is why she (the mother) asked the court to take my daughter from me by execution," MfD quotes the father as saying.
For the first time, the executor came at 2:00 a.m. He dragged Marie out of bed and took the crying girl away, MfD writes.
When the girl did not want to go to her mother later, she was again taken away by the executor and the court decided that the girl will stay in her mother´s care. It did not rule, however, how often the father will be allowed to see his daughter, the paper writes.
"Czech courts sent a Czech child who has lived in the Czech Republic until then away and no one cares," MfD quotes the father as saying.
Rostislav Zalesky, director of the Office for International Legal Protection of Children, told the paper that the father has little chance to get his daughter back.
"He can seek the right to meet her through our office. But this is difficult to arrange, particularly if the mother does not communicate," Zalesky told MfD.
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