Y and K (Children: Summary Return Application: Asylum), Re
[2024] EWHC 555 (Fam)
T v V & Anor
12 December 2022
[2022] EWHC 3692 (Fam)
High Court
A mom took her kids to Iran, then came back alone. The kids wanted to return to the UK, and the judge agreed it was best for them to go home, ordering the dad to help bring them back.
Key Facts
- •Mother, T, took children, W (born 2008) and X (born 2012), to Iran in July 2021 where the father, V, resided.
- •Return tickets were booked for August 24, 2021, but the mother returned to the UK alone on August 3, 2021, leaving the children in Iran.
- •Mother claimed she feared the father would prevent her departure due to their Iranian religious marriage registration; father alleged abandonment.
- •Application for children's return to the UK was made in July 2022, significantly after the mother's departure.
- •Children's wishes and feelings were ascertained through CAFCASS, indicating significant welfare concerns and desire to return to the UK.
- •The father possessed the children's British passports and claimed the Iranian passports were held by Iranian authorities.
- •The court found the father's evidence regarding the passports to be unconvincing and unreliable.
Legal Principles
Determining the appropriate forum for child upbringing disputes.
Re K (A Child) [2019] EWHC 466 (Fam)
Welfare of the child is paramount in non-Hague Convention cases.
Re J (A Child) [2005] UKHL 40
Principles for inward return orders, including welfare considerations and the child's wishes.
Re NY (A Child) [2019] UKSC 49 and Re N (A Child) [2020] EWFC 35
Giving effect to the wishes of a Gillick-competent child unless objectively foolish or unreasonable.
AS v CPW [2020] EWHC 1238 (Fam)
Children Act 1989, Section 1(3) checklist for welfare considerations.
Children Act 1989
Outcomes
England and Wales was deemed the appropriate forum for determining the children's upbringing.
Substantial connection to the UK: birth, upbringing, education, language, and the mother's settled life.
Summary return order for both children to the UK.
Children's wishes, welfare concerns in Iran (isolation, lack of education, safety fears), and the father's unreliable evidence.
Father ordered to facilitate children's return, including obtaining necessary documentation and permissions.
Father's control over the children's passports and failure to provide credible evidence of their location.