Mums on the Run
The women fleeing with their children to avoid orders by family courts in England and Wales to hand them over to abusive partners.
A growing number of women are choosing to abduct their children and leave the country because family courts in England and Wales are handing them over to abusive partners. Many mothers are choosing to flee to Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus – where it is hard for the British authorities to reach them, because it is an unrecognised territory that doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the UK.
The most recent figures show that its International Child Abduction and Contact Unit, which helps to return children taken overseas by one parent without the other’s consent - is dealing with 1,341 cases, although it is not known how many are mothers escaping alleged abusers. There are estimated to be dozens of women in northern Cyprus.
In this edition of the 5 Minutes On podcast, the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's special correspondent Ed Thomas shares the exclusive stories of four women driven to such desperation that they’ve taken their children out of the country. They give accounts of domestic abuse, coercive control and Family Courts that wanted their children to spend more time with fathers who they felt were unsafe.Β (Image: Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ)
