Contrast that with these UK mothers, where the governmental authorities take a very ho-hum attitude about their plight. We hear nothing but endless complaints about countries like Japan for favoring moms. We hear nothing at all about al the countries like Libya or others where fathers are catered to. Where's the State Department outrage about that?
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/World/2010/11/05/UK_mums_reunited_with_stolen_children_535486.htmlUK mums reunited with 'stolen children'
Friday, November 05, 2010 » 04:08pm
Sky News has been given unprecedented access to travel to Libya with a group of mothers being reunited with their children after their fathers took them abroad.
In most cases the children were abducted. But in all cases the mothers have virtually no chance of getting them back.
The trip was organised by the UK charity Children and Families Across Borders.
The idea was for the mothers to get two weeks' organised access to their children at a holiday camp in the Libyan capitol Tripoli.
The project has the backing of Libya's leader Colonel Gaddafi.
We set off for Tripoli with a group of mothers and grandparents from across the UK and Europe.
Anita Lewis from Norwich was married to a Libyan who snatched her five children 10 years ago.
She told us how her life changed forever when her ex-husband came to pick up their children one day and never brought them back.
'He hired a couple - a husband and wife - with a passport with 10 children on it which was used to smuggle my children out as their children,' she said.
'It was all very well organised. When the news comes that they are in Libya I guess you're supposed to be relieved that at least they are alive.
'But for me it was my worst fear realised - knowing I wouldn't be able to get them back.'
Anita travelled to Libya with her two youngest children from another relationship.
On the steps of the holiday village, she was reunited with her two oldest boys Hamza, 15, and Ali, 17.
Waiting inside were her daughters Rumaysa, 21, Safiya, 19, and Aisha, 12.
They were forbidden by their father from being greeted by their mother in front of our cameras.
Their father, Azzedin Elgirnazi, stood in reception watching everything.
He had also checked into the holiday village to keep watch over his ex-wife for her entire two-week stay.
Azzedin is still wanted by Interpol for five counts of child abduction.
In the past year, there has been a 39% increase in the number of British children abducted and taken to countries not signed up to the Hague Convention - an international protocol to help parents get their children back.
Few countries outside Europe observe the convention.
Marek Ganther from Children and Families Across Borders said: 'In Libya and most of the Arabic world it's virtually impossible to get your child back.
'There just aren't the legal mechanisms as there are with countries that are signatories to the Hague Convention on the international aspects of child abduction which does provide a speedy mechanism for the return and the resolution of these problems.
'I think we need the world to recognise that these days there are many more trans-cultural marriages and relationships and there is much more movement across borders and so these problems are only likely to increase.
'I think that some of the fathers feel that they can do whatever they want here.'
