The threat of kidnap continues to concern UK communities, law enforcement, and commerce and industry throughout the world. This is despite the fact that the UK is acknowledged by the United Nations as a world leader in reducing the harm caused by kidnap and blackmail offences. High profile kidnaps abroad cause harm at international, community and regional level. 

During 2008/09, police forces reported 2,034 kidnappings to the Home Office, a slight increase (2%) on 2007/08. Nonetheless, in recent years the overall trend in reported kidnaps is downward and the current figure is almost 30% less than in 2001/02 (2,795).  In practice, however, the true kidnapping figures are unknown.

Different types of kidnap

It’s likely that many kidnaps go unreported, as often the hostage and the person subject to the kidnappers’ demands are themselves criminals and have no wish to involve the law. These “vendetta kidnaps” generally revolve around debt disputes, for example linked to drug deals.

“Tiger kidnaps” involve the holding of a hostage, usually a close relative of the victim, to force the victim to facilitate a robbery.

Kidnappings abroad

Overseas, UK nationals are at greater risk of kidnap in areas of recent conflict or instability. There has also been an increase in the kidnapping of foreign nationals, for example in Pakistan, with ransom demands being made to overseas family members, including those in the UK.

In South Africa, criminals commit fraud by deceiving people to invest in items such as scrap metal and then lure victims to the country to be kidnapped to obtain ransom money. This technique has previously been associated with criminals in west Africa, including Nigeria.

Extortion / blackmail

Blackmail covers a multitude of criminal activities, including product contamination, and uses threats to get money, although other demands may also be made.

As with kidnaps, the true extent of blackmail and extortion offences (including “protection rackets”) by serious organised criminals is not known.  Fear, and damage to reputation in the case of retail businesses, may make victims unwilling to report instances.

Citizens in Daqahlia Governorate prevented judges overseeing Shura Council elections from reaching polling stations Monday to protest the abduction of a child.

Angry citizens from Gasfa blocked the Cairo-Mansoura Road, burning car tires and denying judges entry to their village and neighboring ones, after a gang kidnapped a 12-year-old boy named Islam Mostafa and demanded a LE2 million ransom from his family.

Some villagers said the gang members, who are well-known to both security authorities and citizens, kidnapped the boy Saturday morning on his way to a school exam. They said the police investigations chief advised the boy’s family to pay the ransom because the gang was out of the police’s reach.

“We negotiated with one of the kidnappers, a fellow villager, and paid them LE200,000 late Sunday, but they did not return the kid. So we decided to block the road and disrupt elections until the boy is back and his kidnappers are arrested,” one eyewitness said.

The villagers said Mostafa’s kidnapping is not the first. Another villager was abducted last Wednesday but was returned home after his family paid LE100,000 in ransom, they said.

Security sources said police and army officials have been negotiating with the protesters to reopen the road and allow the polls to resume, but the citizens have vowed to continue protesting until the boy is returned home.

Justisminister Grete Faremo fortalte til TV2 at: “intensivt arbeid mot bortføring av barn har ført til at det offisielle tallet på barnebortføringer gikk ned i fjor.”  Realiteten er at det ikke er noe nedgang å spore, om man ser mer enn ett år tilbake. Det eksisterer dessverre heller ikke noe “intensivt arbeid mot bortføringer” fordi regjeringen har unnlatt å ta viktige grep. Les mer her.

Det verste er at vi ikke kan stole på at Justisdepartementets tall stemmer, fordi de har oppgitt feil tall tidligere. I en sprørretimen i Stortinget 03.02.10 sa daværende justisminister Knut Storberget følgende: ”Det vi har sett siden 2006, er at antallet barnebortføringer fra Norge som vi har registrert, faktisk har sunket fra 57 til 28. Les referatet her. Tallene Storberget preseneterte stemte imidlertid ikke.

Ingen ante da at Storberget brukte manipulert statistikk for å villede Stortinget. Vi la fram detaljerte opplysninger om bortføringer som ikke var å finne i statistikken. Justisdepartementet svarte skriftlig til Stortinget 03.03.10 hvor de forklarte seg slik: ”Nettsiden www.bortført.no, som justisministeren redegjorde for i samme spørretime, sier imidlertid at det har vært en dramatisk økning i antall bortføringer, og at Justisdepartementet driver talljuks slik at statistikken ser bedre ut enn det den egentlig er. En del av problemet er at politiet i enkelte tilfeller ikke vil ta imot anmeldelser mot bortfører, eller at de ikke har gode registreringsordninger slik at alle tilfeller som kommer til politiet, fanges opp.”

Politiet fikk skylden

Justisdepartementet slapp unna med talljukset  i 2010 ved å skylde på politiet. Unnskyldningen var imidlertid nokså tåpelig, siden alle de unnlatte bortføringene var rapportert direkte til Justisdepartementet. I 2009 var det helt vanlig at politiet ikke mottok anmeldinger, fordi det ikke er straffbart for foreldre med daglig omsorg å bortføre barn. Les mer her. Politiet har blitt flinkere til å motta anmeldelser, men man er ikke avhengig av en politianmeldelse for å kreve barn returnert i henhold til Haagkonvensjonen.

Disse sakene kunne ikke skjules i departementets skuffer i evighet, derfor dukket bortføringene opp igjen i statistikken for 2010, som således ble et rekordår med hele 64 bortføringer.

Vi kjenner ikke til bortføringer som er utelatt i statistikken for 2011. Vi føler vi oss likevel ikke trygge fordi vi vet at Justisdepartementet er villige til å bruke løgn som virkemiddel for å lede søkelyset vekk fra barnebortføringssakene.

For å få en oversikt oversikt må man se på utviklingen over tid, og da vil man finne ut at antallet barnebortføringer, både fra og til Norge, øker stødig. Se nyhetssendingen fra TV2 her.

HARRISBURG — State Rep. Deberah Kula, D-North Union Township, has introduced legislation aimed at preventing parental child abduction.

This legislation would create guidelines for Pennsylvania courts to follow in custody disputes that involve a parent or guardian deemed at risk of abducting a child.

In cases in which a court deems that there is a risk of abduction, a parent would be able to petition the court to order anti-abduction measures, including restricting the travel of the child when the child is with the other parent, restricting access to the child by the other parent and requiring the other parent to surrender any passport or visa held for the child.

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One key to ABP World Group`s successful recovery and re-unification of your loved one is to use all necessary means available

Contact us here: Mail

Join the Facebook Group: International Parental Child Abduction

NOTE: We are always available 24/7

U.S Phone Number: (646) 502-7443

UK Phone Number: 020 3239 0013 -

Or you can call our 24h Emergency phone number: +47 45504271

The Hague Conference on Private International Law is to convene Part II of the Sixth Special Commission Meeting to review the practical operation of the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention and the 1996 Hague Child Protection Convention from 25th to 31st January 2012. 

The Child Abduction Convention applies typically where one parent has moved a child abroad without the consent of the other parent and without the permission of a court. In such a case, the “left behind” parent may apply through the Hague system for the prompt return of the child.

The Hague Child Protection Convention provides for co-operation among States Parties on a wide range of cross-border child protection matters, e.g., parental disputes over contact with children, the protection of runaway children and cross-border care.

The Special Commission programme includes, among other things, presentations and discussions on:

• the enforcement of mediated agreements:
• grave risk of harm defence in return proceedings;
• international family relocation; and
• the future of the Malta Process, a dialogue between senior judges and high ranking government officials from Contracting States to the 1980 and 1996 Conventions and non-Contracting States with Sharia based law. The Process is aimed at improving State co-operation in order to assist with resolving difficult cross-border family law disputes in situations where the relevant international legal framework is not applicable.

ABP World Group Ltd. deliver one of the safest and advanced panic room / safe rooms available today. – World Wide.

The simplest safe room is simply a closet with the hollow-core door replaced with an exterior-grade solid-core door that has a deadbolt and longer hinge screws and strike-plate screws to resist battering. Sometimes, the ceiling is reinforced, or gated, to prevent easy access from the attic or from an overhead crawlspace.

More expensive safe rooms, such as those constructed for celebrities and executives, have walls and a door reinforced with sheets of steel, Kevlar, or bullet-resistant fibreglass. The hinges and strike plate are often reinforced with long screws. Some safe rooms may also have a externally-vented ventilation systems and a separate telephone connection. They might also connect to an escape shaft.

Safe rooms in the basement can be built with concrete walls, a building technique that is normally not possible on the upper floors of wood-framed structures unless there is substantial structural reinforcement to the building.

Safe rooms may contain communications equipment, such as a cellular telephone, land-line telephone or an amateur radio transceiver, so that law enforcement authorities can be contacted. There may also be a monitor for external security cameras and an alarm system. In basic safe rooms, a peephole in the door may be used for a similar purpose. Safe rooms are typically stocked with basic emergency and survival items such as a flashlight, blankets, a first-aid kit, water, packaged food, self-defence tools, firearms, a gas mask, and a simple portable toilet.

Immediate access to current information about the missing child is critical.

Although nobody hopes to be in such a situation where this information is needed, parents have to keep in mind that child abduction can occur anytime, anywhere, to any child. Therefore, parents must have the resources and knowledge about their children ready, so they can take action if their children become missing.

The goal of ABP World Group international child recovery services is to locate, negotiate and recover your missing child. We can dispatch personnel to most locations in the world; we specialize in locating missing children up to ages 18.

Areas of expertise: Parental abduction, Missing children, Kidnappings,
Runaway children and Counselling.

Unfortunately in this day and time parental kidnapping happens and we are here to help you trough this difficult time.
We are aware parental child abduction can be difficult to resolve, but we use professional operatives with the skills and expertise to help find a resolution.

The day before Thanksgiving Max Troitsky got a call from his mom asking if he knew that his estranged wife and toddler daughter were visiting Russia.

He didn’t, but should have. Anna Troitsky was not supposed to leave the U.S. with their only child without his permission under their court-ordered custody agreement.

Nearly two months later, the Bensalem man is going public with what had been a private and bitter custody dispute in an effort to convince his wife to bring their daughter home or convince Russian authorities to intervene.

His attorney believes the situation could be Russia’s first test under the Hague Abduction Convention, which dictates civil aspects of International Child Abduction. In October Russia joined the Convention as a partner country, meaning it will honor civil verdicts issued by foreign courts, such as custody orders.

The U.S. State Department has seen a sharp increase in the number of international parental child abductions.

The federal agency had 1,135 reports of international child abductions in fiscal year 2009, and most of the alleged abductions were in Hague Convention partner countries, according to the most recent U.S. Department of State statistics. In 2006, there were 642 international abduction cases.

That same year, 436 children abducted or wrongly retained in foreign countries were returned to the United States, most of the children were returned from countries that are Hague Convention partners with the U.S.

The Troitsky’s custody saga started not long after the couple, both Russia natives, filed for divorce in 2010 after five years of marriage citing irreconcilable differences, according to court papers. At the time, Julie was 7 months old.

After the couple separated, Troitsky moved to Bensalem and Anna, Julie and mother-in-law Elena Demyanyuk continued to live in the family’s Upper Southampton home.

As the divorce and custody cases proceeded through the courts, Anna filed a petition seeking court permission to relocate to either Moscow, Russia, or Denver, Colorado, where her brother lives.

Troitsky says Anna, who came to the U.S. shortly before they married, often fought his efforts to get more visitations and overnight stays with their daughter.

“What parent doesn’t want to spend time with your child,” he said. “It was painful to me, painful to my parents, who rarely see their grandchild.”

In mid-November, though, a Bucks County judge issued custody order granting the couple shared legal custody of Julie. Anna had primary physical custody and Troitsky partial physical custody including weekends, overnight and weekday dinners. The judge also denied Anna’s request to relocate to either Russia or Denver, according to court papers.

Troitsky claims Anna only started talking about wanting to return to Russia after the divorce was filed, but he never anticipated his wife would violate the custody order.

“I certainly had no idea they were contemplating this,” he said.

The Courier Times was unsuccessful in reaching Montgomery County attorney Matthew F. Fox who is listed in court records as representing Anna Troitsky in her divorce and custody cases.

Four days after the final custody order was issued, though, Anna, Elena and Julie secretly left the U.S., Troitsky said.

Newtown Township attorney Jeff Leibmann, who represents Troitsky, believes Anna was able to leave the U.S. with Julie, who did not have a U.S. passport because she added her name to her Russian passport. Russia allows its citizens to add the names of children to the passports of parents.

Two days after arriving in Moscow, Elena told Troitsky’s mom in a phone call the three were in Moscow for a few days visiting Anna’s sick father.

Elena allegedly claimed that when Anna and Julie tried to return to the U.S. they were turned away at the airport because of a passport issue with Julie. She said Troitsky had to send a consent letter showing he authorized her to leave the U.S. with Julie, as required by their custody agreement.

The next day, when Troitsky reached Anna on the phone, she assured him she planned to return with Julie, but she also wanted a guarantee that she wouldn’t face criminal charges for taking their daughter out of the country.

Troitsky says he agreed not to pursue legal action. He made Anna an appointment at the U.S. embassy in Russia to start the process to get Julie a passport but she didn’t show up, Troitsky said.

Two days later, on Nov. 26, Troitsky said, Anna told him that she decided she wanted to stay longer in Russia. During that conversation, Troitsky spent a few minutes with Julie on Skype. It was the last time he saw or spoke to her, he says.

Within days, Troitsky says his suspicions that Anna had no plans to return were confirmed.

After he visited the Upper Southampton home, he discovered most of Anna and Julie’s clothes and personal belongings including family photos were gone. All the joint legal documents, including the deed to the house and title were gone, as were the car keys. He learned she quit her job after arriving in Moscow.

“It was clear she had no intention of ever coming back,” he said.

Troitsky and Anna had their last phone conversation three days before an emergency custody hearing was scheduled in Bucks County Court, he said. She told him she didn’t know when she’d return to the U.S.

At that hearing, a Bucks County judge ordered Anna to return to the U.S. with Julie within seven days, otherwise full physical and legal custody would be transferred to Troitsky.

But as far as he knows the three remain in Russia, most likely Moscow.

The U.S. embassy in Russia has been providing updates to Troitsky, but there hasn’t been much to report recently. The embassy has not had much success reaching Anna and Elena and even if they do, they can only encourage her to return, Leibmann said.

The embassy also has reached out to the Russian authorities for help finding Julie, but they are not under any obligation to help find her until Russia establishes a Central Authority to oversee compliance with the Hague Convention.

Troitsky said there is no reason his estranged wife should want to limit his access to Julie. There are no abuse allegations or evidence in any of the custody trial or related investigation. A check of county court records shows no protection from abuse orders filed against either Troitsky.

At this point, Anna may believe that she will be arrested if she returns, Troitsky said, adding he is not interested in pursuing criminal charges. The Upper Southampton police and the FBI have been notified about the situation to get Julie’s photos added to Interpol and U.S. law enforcement databases.

To get his daughter’s face, and his story, into the public eye, Troitsky and his supporters have created a Web site, called “Help Bring Julie Home.”

Troitsky says he has been on an emotional rollercoaster and he has spent many sleepless nights wondering about his child. He misses their special “father-daughter kind of moments.”

“At this point all I want to say is bring Julie back, come back with her, we’ll figure out the details of the custody,” he said. “Taking a child away from a father is not an option.”

In a few weeks Julie turns 2. The most time passes without contact with his daughter, the more Troitsky worries.

“She is probably starting to forget me,” he said.

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