In a recent decision by the Family Court in Brisbane a Dutch national is allowed to relocate back to the Netherlands with her two-year-old daughter. This is the conclusion of a lengthy international court battle that began in the Netherlands in 2017.
Almost five months later the father of the child invoked the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction, claiming the mother had abducted their child. She says that if this Hague Convention is applied to women fleeing domestic violence, the outcomes are often catastrophic for abused women and children.
Upon her return to Australia for trial, the mother was met by Queensland police at the airport under a High Security Alert order, and housed in a refuge for domestic violence victims. It took almost a year before the father was made to pay child support through the Child Support Agency. The mother herself is elated with the outcome of her particular case and told SBS Dutch the last year and a half in the Australian Family Court as “really intense”.