Hala's daughter has been gone for almost 8 years.

With the help of her lawyer and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she has tried to get her back, but the work on repatriation has been slow. 

- Actually, they said right from the start that they won't be able to get my daughter back, says Hala.

The reason is that the daughter was taken to Jordan, which is not connected to the 1980 Hague Convention, and therefore Sweden has no cooperation regarding reunification.

- But if you had acted earlier, you could have gotten my daughter back - or even stopped the abduction before it happened, says Hala.

She thinks that both social services and the school could have protected the child.

Hala has not gone down to Jordan herself because she is afraid of the ex-husband who has threatened to kill her if she tries to get her daughter back.

Early warning signals were not taken seriously

SVT has reviewed the investigations and judgments that were made in the case of Hala's daughter.

Both in the family court's investigation from 2012 and in a district court judgment from 2013, it is clear that Hala expresses concern that the father will take the daughter to Jordan.

According to Hala, the father had previously said that he did not want to raise his daughter in Sweden because she would become "too Swedish".

But the father denies this in the family law investigation and the assessment is made that the risk of an abduction is low.

However, the district court decides that foreign trips must be notified in good time, and that the daughter's passport must be kept with the mother - something the father refused to do.

"In that second I knew"

When Hala's daughter was abducted, it took two weeks before the abduction was discovered.

The parents were in the middle of a multi-year custody dispute when, a few weeks before the abduction, the father made accusations that Hala had beaten the daughter, and that he should therefore have sole custody.

In connection with the report, the social services decided that the daughter would live with her father for the time being.

Hala would also not be allowed to see her daughter while the allegations were being investigated.

But before the social services' investigation was completed, the father had time to take the child out of the country.

It was only when an unknown man called Hala one day that she understood that her daughter was gone

- The man told me that my ex-husband has left his apartment and rented it out.

In that second I knew she was gone, says Hala.



The ex-husband brought the daughter to Jordan despite Hala alerting social services about that risk.

- They should at least have protected her while the allegations were being investigated, says Hala.

The school did not raise the alarm

Only after her daughter has disappeared does Hala also find out that her daughter has not been to school for two weeks and despite the fact that no one had called her sick - the school never alerted her that she was gone.

SVT has contacted family law, social services and the school, who do not want to comment on the case.

Hala's daughter is one of thousands of children who have been abducted in the last 10 years.

Fewer than a third return, but a few weeks ago, Hala received a call from her daughter.



Watch Hala tell about the unexpected call from her daughter in the video.

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