Bring Dylan home

Just been reading up on the sad case of Dylan Laybourn at Bring Dylan home.

Dylan’s parents are both NZ citizens. The mother, who is also a Turkish citizen, went with Dylan, then aged four months, for a three week holiday in May 2007. She phoned from Turkey to say she is not returning home and will not return Dylan.

Stuff has an NZPA story from last October that reported:

Prime Minister Helen Clark has stepped into a custody battle over a New Zealand child taken to Turkey by his mother 18 months ago.

Four months after he was born in Auckland, Dylan Laybourn was taken to Turkey in May 2007 by his Turkish mother Gulsen for a holiday.

After she refused to return him, Dylan’s father Bruce visited Turkey twice and pursued government and legal avenues to try to get him back.

Under the Hague Convention on Child Abduction, any custody dispute should be heard in the child’s country of origin, in this case New Zealand, Mr Laybourn said on 3 News tonight.

However, Turkey did not recognise New Zealand’s membership of the Hague Convention in 2007 due to an oversight.

Mr Laybourn was told that then-Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters would not raise the issue when he was in Turkey earlier this year, and the legal case to retrieve Dylan had closed in Turkey because of the technicality over the Hague Convention.

“Diplomacy has done all it can, officials have done all they can, the legal obligations do not require Turkey to return the child unfortunately,” Miss Clark told 3 News.

“That’s why I have said I will personally take it up with the Turkish Prime Minister,” she said.

I am not sure what the technicaly is, but it will be appalling if the father loses his rights due to this, and I hope the NZ Government continues the work done by Helen Clark to get a satisfactory conclusion to this.