Allegedly Abused Child Deported By Canada Based on Ruling on Mother’s Hague Convention Application Allowed to Return to Canada to Live With Her Aunt | Janet Langjahr's Florida Divorce * Child Custody * Domestic Violence Law

Last October I posted about an unusual case in Mexican Mother Wins Return of Daughter Who Runs Away to Canadian Aunt Because of Alleged Abuse.

Mother was awarded custody of Daughter in her parents’ divorce, but Daughter has maintained that Mother abused her. Although Canada granted Daughter refugee status, Mother secured Daughter’s deportation and return to Mexico under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

On appeal in Canada, however, a reversal paved the way for Daughter’s return to Canada for lack of a risk assessment hearing prior to her deportation. With intervention in the case from the UN Commissioner for Refugees and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the appellate court granted Daughter another hearing.

But Mexican authorities had no interest in the Canadian court’s rulings. So Daughter once again fled Mexico, with help from the Aunt with whom she had lived in Canada.

Now Daughter is back in Canada, which she considers her home. And a Canadian family court has ruled that she may remain in Canada permanently, in the care of her aunt.