International child abduction
When a child doesn’t come home, the alarm bells start ringing. In the worst-case scenario, everyone gets involved – including fedpol.
July 2023: Three-year-old Julian* spent the weekend with his father Hasan*, who shares custody with his mother. At the time agreed for Julian to return, his mother is left waiting in vain for her son. She reports her child missing to the Fribourg Cantonal Police. But Hasan and Julian are already long gone. Hasan probably intends to return to his home country, a former war zone in the Middle East.
Hasan has committed an offence under Article 220 of the Criminal Code: child abduction is a serious crime. The Fribourg Cantonal Police and fedpol join forces: the child is made the subject of an alert in RIPOL, Switzerland’s police search system for missing and wanted persons, as well as in the Schengen Information System (SIS) and the INTERPOL database.
SIS tender
Since March 2023, it has been possible to enter preventive alerts for vulnerable persons in the SIS. The child and adult protection authority or the court can order a precautionary alert if, for example, there is a risk that one parent wants to take their child abroad against the will of the other parent. An alert can also be ordered in other circumstances, for example in imminent cases of forced marriage or female genital mutilation. In 2023, the Swiss authorities ordered 535 alerts.
Unfortunately, the alerts in the search systems do not always prevent people from leaving Switzerland. Hasan is travelling by car with his son across the Balkans towards Greece. In many child abduction cases, the abducting parent flees by land to a foreign country. They take advantage of the absence of internal borders in the Schengen area. In Greece, Hasan obtains forged passports for himself and Julian and manages to enter Turkey. From there, he contacts Julian’s mother; more and more frequently.
«Whether a child can be brought home often depends on how well the various authorities work together. In Switzerland, these include the cantonal authorities, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) with consular protection and its local consulates, fedpol with its international police contacts and the Federal Office of Justice.»
Pia, police specialist
The fedpol police attaché in Turkey liaises with the local authorities on behalf of the Fribourg Cantonal Police. They check whether Hasan and Julian are actually in Turkey; they appear to have gone into hiding – thanks to the fake passports. The Fribourg Cantonal Police manage to contact Hasan by telephone. They try to reach an agreement with him to bring Julian safely back to his mother in Switzerland.
The discussions drag on for weeks; the father makes demands. An agreement seems to have been reached by the end of December. Hasan is afraid to leave Turkey because of the forged documents. His whereabouts are now known and the police attaché – on behalf of the Fribourg Cantonal Police – requests the local authorities to have Julian taken into care. Finally, on 29 December the Turkish authorities take three-year-old Julian away from Hasan. He is back in his mother’s arms by the beginning of 2024.
Network of police attaché(s)
fedpol and the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (FOCBS) operate a network of police attachés in Europe, the Maghreb, the Middle East, and South America; they are also represented at Europol and INTERPOL. The police attachés are the contact persons in these regions and at these organisations: they handle urgent and important cases with a Swiss connection, speed up ongoing investigations and the exchange of information, and arrange contacts. The cases mainly involve persons in physical danger, drug trafficking, terrorism, paedophilia and abduction.
* Name changed