The Civil Court yesterday ordered the immediate return of a five-year-old Dutch boy abducted from The Netherlands by his mother last August.

Mr Justice Ray Pace upheld an application filed by the director of family welfare against Dutch mother Heleen Cornelia Van Der Linde.

The director submitted that the case was being filed in terms of the 1999 legislation that had ratified two international conventions on international child abduction and recognition and enforcement of custody decisions.

The application concerned five-year-old Yorrick Bos, the son of Harm Bos and Van Der Linde, who was illegally removed from The Netherlands and brought to Malta.

The Maltese authorities were requested by the Dutch authorities to discover the whereabouts of the minor and to secure his immediate return.

It was established that the child was living with his mother in Swieqi and the director filed the application for his return to The Netherlands.

The court yesterday noted that the child's parents had divorced in The Netherlands on July 25, 2001.

A further court order of April 3, 2002 had decided that the child was to spend alternate weekends with his father, and that contact during vacations and public holidays was to be arranged by mutual consultation.

It resulted that on August 11, 2002 the mother brought the child to Malta, and the father reported the matter to the Dutch police the following day.

A formal report to the Maltese authorities was made on January 10, 2003. Mr Justice Pace noted that on March 28, the child's mother had filed proceedings in The Netherlands, requesting that the court's decision granting visiting rights to the father of the child be revoked.

She had also requested the court to authorise her to have the child with her in Malta.

However, the Dutch court dismissed her request and declared that it would not grant a decree declaring that the child's temporary place of residence was Malta.

The Dutch court ruled that it seemed as though the mother had not been legally entitled to take the child out of the country, as his main place of residence was The Netherlands.

Furthermore, the child's father had not granted his permission for the child to travel with his mother.

Mr Justice Pace found that the mother's actions had been unilateral and arbitrary, and that she had not consulted with the child's father in the least manner.

The removal of the child outside the jurisdiction of the Dutch courts constituted a wrongful removal of the child by his mother, and the child was therefore to be returned to his habitual place of residence from where he had been illegally removed.