My child has been taken abroad by their other parent. What should I do?

The first conversation is often difficult to organise. You may have a message, an unexpected change of plans or a child who is no longer where you understood they would be. Alongside the worry comes a practical question: who should you speak to, and what should you tell them?

If there is an immediate concern for a child’s safety, contact the appropriate emergency services. Suspected abduction should be reported to the police, and specialist family-law advice should be sought promptly. A website enquiry is not an emergency response channel.

The next task is to make the situation understandable. A clear account helps the police, legal advisers and any appropriately instructed investigator assess what they can do. You do not need to resolve every uncertainty before asking for help.

Start with the facts you can establish

Write a short timeline. Record when the child was last known to be at home, what travel was expected, when you learned that plans had changed and what communication has followed. Keep dates and the source of each piece of information together.

Distinguish what you know from what you have been told and what you suspect. An address supplied by a relative, a message about a journey and a confirmed location are different kinds of information. That distinction can be useful to the people assessing the situation.

Include the countries involved and explain your relationship to the child. A lawyer will need to understand the family circumstances and any relevant arrangements or orders. Avoid trying to draw a legal conclusion from a short description online.

Put the right people around the question

Different organisations have different roles. The police, public authorities, specialist lawyers and private investigators do not provide interchangeable services.

GOV.UK’s international parental child-abduction guidance sets out official contacts and options for children taken or kept abroad. Reunite International provides advice and support on international parental child-abduction matters. A qualified lawyer assesses the legal position and the steps available for the countries concerned.

A private investigative brief may address a different question: what can be established about the child’s whereabouts or the reliability of particular information? The proposed work needs a defined purpose and must sit alongside the relevant legal and official processes.

A useful first account separates what is known, what needs checking and who is responsible for the next decision.

Prepare information without spreading it widely

Your advisers may need identity information, relevant travel details, communications and documents concerning the child. Keep the original material and organise it so you can explain what each item is and where it came from.

Ask the receiving professional how they want sensitive information supplied. General website forms are a poor place for passports, court records, exact locations or detailed family routines. For an initial enquiry to Pegasus Ops, a broad outline and a safe contact method are enough to begin the conversation.

Also consider who is authorised to receive updates. A family member, solicitor or family-office representative may be helping, but the people working on the matter need to know who can instruct them and who can make decisions.

When the child’s location is uncertain

Sometimes the family knows the country but cannot establish a reliable address. In other cases, the location being reported has not been independently confirmed. It is important to explain that uncertainty rather than allowing a possible lead to become an assumed fact.

An agreed child-abduction investigation can assess existing information, identify gaps and consider appropriate location enquiries. The proposal should explain the question being investigated, the work included, the reporting arrangements and the fee.

Investigation and recovery are separate stages. Locating a child does not itself establish authority for a particular action. Any later operational proposal requires its own assessment of the child’s welfare, the legal position and the permissions relevant to the work.

Be clear about what a provider is offering

Ask who will assess the enquiry and what happens after the initial discussion. A meaningful proposal should identify the work being accepted, its deliverables, the people authorised to instruct it and the circumstances that could change the scope.

Be cautious about treating a promise of a result as a substitute for that explanation. A previous successful recovery is evidence of experience; it does not determine the outcome of another family’s case.

Pegasus Ops describes its approach, experience and initial enquiry process on the child abduction investigations and international recovery support. The role being considered is established for the particular instruction, alongside the family’s legal advisers and the appropriate authorities.

Do not turn uncertainty into an improvised recovery

Travel, confrontation or an attempt to collect a child can introduce further risks and legal consequences. Before arranging action, discuss the position with appropriately qualified advisers. A protective plan needs more than confidence that the child has been found.

The most useful immediate contribution may be a clear timeline, preserved information and an understandable route for decisions. Those foundations help the people responsible assess a possible next step without losing sight of the child.

A short checklist for the first conversation

• The countries involved and your relationship to the child.
• The expected arrangements and the change that raised concern.
• What is known about the child’s whereabouts, with uncertainties identified.
• Any immediate welfare concern and which authorities have been contacted.
• The lawyers or other professionals already involved.
• A safe contact method and the person authorised to give instructions.

Detailed evidence can follow through the channel agreed with the relevant professional. The purpose of the first conversation is to establish the concern and an appropriate next step, rather than to make every decision at once.

The first 48 hours: act promptly, then organise the account

You do not need to wait 48 hours before seeking help. If your child is in immediate danger in the UK, call 999; for non-emergency police reporting, use 101. When a child is overseas, use the relevant local emergency route for an immediate danger there. Police guidance on parental child abduction explains what officers may need to know.

For your own record, organise the next actions in the following order. Urgent reporting and legal advice can proceed while documents are being gathered; a missing document should not delay reporting a safety concern.

Hague country, non-Hague country, or location unknown?

Ask your adviser to establish whether the Hague return process applies to the countries and circumstances concerned. If it does not, the assessment needs country-specific advice about other routes. If the location is unknown, describe the evidence for each possible lead without treating it as confirmed. These are questions for the professionals handling the case, not conclusions to draw from a country’s name in a search result.

Practical support is also available from Reunite International. Pegasus Ops can assess a defined investigative brief alongside the family’s legal and official support. An initial enquiry should identify the information gap, rather than assume that a recovery operation has already been agreed.

What Pegasus Ops does for families facing child abduction

Pegasus Ops provides international child-recovery and investigative support. Depending on the circumstances and agreed brief, we can conduct physical enquiries on the ground, use lawful surveillance where appropriate, verify the child’s whereabouts, plan an operation and carry out an agreed lawful physical recovery and return. Our work is coordinated with the family’s legal advisers and the appropriate authorities, with the child’s welfare central to the brief.

The client receives a defined proposal covering the task, responsibilities, reporting and costs before paid work proceeds. Our international child-recovery service and published case study explain our experience. Begin with a broad outline and safe contact details; an initial enquiry does not need the child’s full file.

Updated 12 November 2026.

General guidance, not legal advice. Official starting points: GOV.UK help for a child taken or kept abroad and the FCDO guidance linked above. Individual legal questions need a suitably qualified lawyer.