~~WHAT IS OUR COUNTRY BECOMING~~ Families SA workers return with the boy at Adelaide Airport. THE toddler who was allegedly abducted to Malaysia by his parents after they lost custody of him has been returned to Adelaide by Families SA. FamiliesSA today released a statement confirming the boy, 2, arrived Sunday morning on a Malaysia Airlines flight and would remain in the care of the agency. “The child is now at a care placement and has undergone a routine health check today,’’ a department spokesman said today “Families SA would like to thank the Malaysian child protection services, the Australian High Commission and Foreign Affairs staff in Canberra,’’ he said. The boy was under the guardianship of the Minister for Education and Child Development, but lived with his grandparents. Police on Friday said the parents, aged 26 and 23, had been charged with the aggravated unlawful removal of a child from a jurisdiction. The grandparents, aged 64 and 52, had been charged with aiding and abetting the parents. The arrest of the parents followed a request to Malaysia by the Australian government. Police will allege the grandparents handed the boy over to his parents on August 2, but failed to notify police for more than 24 hours that the boy had been taken. The grandparents have been granted bail and are expected to appear in the Holden Hill Magistrates Court in October. Police will seek to have the parents extradited back to SA. The Advertiser revealed on Saturday that one of the two Families SA staff chosen to travel overseas to retrieve the toddler refused to fly on a Malaysia Airlines flight, delaying the operation. In a bizarre twist in the case, the staff member would not travel on the same flight as an SA police officer for “personal reasons’’ and, as a result, neither of the Families SA workers boarded. The trio was booked on a flight to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday afternoon after the northern suburbs child was found and his parents arrested, but the police officer travelled alone when the Families SA staff declined to board. The staff member who refused to travel on Malaysia Airlines was subsequently replaced with another and the two staff were rebooked — on another Malaysia Airlines flight — that left Adelaide early on Friday. A source familiar with the unusual turn of events said it “reflected poorly on the professionalism of the department’’. “Putting aside the embarrassment this has caused with police, it has delayed the operation to get this child back to Adelaide,” the source said. A government spokesman on Friday night confirmed that one worker did not travel “on a scheduled flight on Thursday for personal reasons’’, but would not elaborate on them. He said the worker would not be subject to disciplinary action and “the department is contacting the airline in regards to cost recovery”. Malaysia Airlines has suffered losses in passenger numbers following two recent air disasters, involving flights MH370 and MH17, that claimed hundreds of lives. news.au/national/south-australia/families-sa-fly-allegedly-kidnapped-boy-back-to-adelaide-from-malaysia/story-fnii5yv4-1227019628961
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 07:39:12 +0000
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