By Kotie Geldenhuys
Photos courtesy of Pexels
What began as a routine family trip quickly spiralled into a mother’s worst nightmare. A South African woman, married to a foreign businessman, agreed that her husband could take their children to his home country to introduce them to relatives while she remained behind for work commitments. Reassured by the return flight tickets he showed her, she believed it would be a short visit. But shortly after their departure, she received a chilling message: she would never see her children again. While many parents associate child abduction with strangers, the reality is often much closer to home. Parental child abduction, conducted by a mother, father or caregiver, is a growing and deeply distressing phenomenon affecting families across borders.
Parental child abduction is a quiet but deeply disruptive crime, unfolding not in dark alleys but in the fraught aftermath of broken relationships. It is defined as the “taking, retention or concealment of a child or children by a parent, other family member or their agent, in derogation of the custody rights, including visitation rights of another parent or family member” (Bailey-Hill, 2021).
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[This is only an extract of an article published in Servamus: May 2026. This article is available for purchase.]