A 30-year-old Polish man has not seen his son for a month after his Sicilian partner left the island with their child without telling him.

Two weeks ago, Adam Kazberuk filed an application under the Hague Convention, asking to be reunited with his 10-month-old son.

People should not be able to take a baby away just like that ­– without a parent knowing... I want my baby back with me

He told Times of Malta that he knows where the boy is and is insisting for his return to Malta.

“This is not right. People should not be able to take a baby away just like that –without one parent knowing... I want my baby back with me,” he said.

Mr Kazberuk said he came to Malta in 2011 and met his wife in 2012. The couple had a boy here but his wife later moved out of their home after problems developed between the two.

The couple agreed to spend alternate days with the baby. But on January 20, when he was meant to pick up his son in the afternoon, he could not get through to his wife, Mr Kazberuk said.

She then called him at about 5pm to inform him that she was in Sicily with the child.

Initially he could not understand how his son had left the island since he kept his travel documents, he said.

On January 22, he went to the Italian Embassy where he was told that an emergency travel document had been issued for the baby a few days earlier.

Mr Kazberuk is insisting this document should never have been issued without his signature. Besides, he said, the baby already had a valid travel document – issued after both parents signed for it – which was never reported stolen or lost.

Mr Kazberuk has written to the Italian Ambassador, the principal immigration officer in Malta and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome demanding answers but has not received a satisfactory explanation or solution, he said. He has also filed a police report.

Each year about seven new cases of international child abduction are filed with the local authority...It is not a crime fora parent to take their child out of a country without informing the other parent

When contacted by this newspaper, the man’s wife insisted she had travelled to Sicily using valid documents issued by the Italian Embassy because hers had been lost.

She said her husband knew where she was and could go there anytime.

The Italian Embassy has ignored several e-mails sent by this newspaper asking to respond to claims that the child’s temporary passport was issued without the father’s consent.

Police intervention

In Malta, as in many other EU countries, it is not a crime for a parent to take their child out of a country without informing the other parent so long as the documents were obtained legitimately, explained Assistant Commissioner Norbert Ciappara, who heads the police vice squad.

Whenever such a case arose, police are brought into the matter through a missing person report filed by the “left-behind parent”. At that stage, police work with their international counterparts to locate the missing child.

This is what happened in the case of a five-year-old boy who was reported missing by his German father five months ago. The boy, who is still missing, is believed to have left with his Swedish mother.

Mr Ciappara, who did not cite specific examples, said police could only take further action if a crime was committed in the process of the child being taken off the island.

In such cases, the police issue a request for a European or international arrest warrant so that the person can be brought to Malta to face charges.

The police recently issued a European arrest warrant against a German mother, Petra Nemet, who is wanted for assaulting a woman with a taser gun in an attempt to abduct her (Ms Nemet’s) three-year-old son in November.

Ms Nemet had abducted the boy, who lives in Żabbar with his German father, in 2013. The child was then returned to Malta following proceedings in Poland under the Hague Convention.

Mr Ciappara said many people mistakenly think that the act of taking a child away from Malta without the other parent’s consent constituted the crime of abduction.

But Maltese law clearly defines abduction as a case of removal involving violence, in which the intention is “to abuse or marry such person”.

Civil matters

Each year about seven new cases of international child abduction are filed with the local authority tasked with handling these situations.

In the majority of cases the child would have been taken out of Malta by a parent without the permission of the other parent. In some cases the child would have been brought to the island without one parent’s knowledge.

The “left-behind parent” would file an application before the Maltese central authority set up under the Hague Convention to deal with the civil aspects of child abduction, a spokeswoman for the authority said.

The main aim of the convention is to ensure children who are abducted are returned to their country of habitual residence, so that rights of custody or access are not infringed.

The spokeswoman said while this was not a new phenomenon, awareness about these issues had increased.

“These cases are often the result of a breakdown in the relationship of the parents hence one can’t really stop this from happening. Good collaboration with the police, court authorities and child welfare agencies ensures a smoother closure to such cases,” she said.