Snatched Nadia Fawzi reunited with mother after Libya ordeal

[Al-khiyal]

Snatched Nadia Fawzi reunited with mother after Libya ordeal

December 22, 2009 -- A six-year-old girl abducted by her father two years ago and taken to Libya was yesterday reunited with her mother. Nadia Fawzi, from Greater Manchester, had been kept in hiding since May 2007 when she was snatched by her father, Fawzi Abuarghub. He said he was taking her to a party near her home town of Wigan, but instead he drove her to Manchester airport, where he bought the pair a ticket to his native Tripoli. For two years he ignored court orders to return Nadia to her British mother, Sarah Taylor, who moved to Libya to try to win back her daughter. After a long and difficult battle in the sharia legal system, Taylor won full custody of Nadia in 2008. But her ex-husband refused to comply with the court order, and despite quiet but firm interventions from the Foreign Office and assorted other agencies both in the UK and Tripoli, he remained at large until yesterday.

Taylor was backed by her local MP, the health secretary Andy Burnham, and the prime minister, Gordon Brown, who personally raised the issue with Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi, at the G8 summit in L'Aquila in Italy in July. Last night Taylor thanked Gaddafi for his role in bringing about the reunion. Describing Burnham as a "tower of strength", she said: "May I also thank the prime minister - who raised my case with Colonel Gaddafi - David Miliband and his team at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the British embassy in Tripoli, led by Vincent Fean and Arvinder Vohra, for all they have done and are doing to help Nadia and me. Above all, I want to thank Colonel Gaddafi, who was kind enough to meet me and listen to my story, and has done so much to make today possible. Colonel Gaddafi said that this child needs her mother … I am eternally grateful. My job now is to make a good life for Nadia."

Burnham, who paid for his own ticket to Libya in June to personally plead with the Libyan authorities on the case, said last night: "We have waited a long time for this moment, and it has been a very hard road for Sarah. She has shown extraordinary courage, dignity and patience and has lived through any parent's worst nightmare. It has finally come to an end today and I have nothing but admiration for the way she has fought her case in the most trying of circumstances imaginable." He added: "Many people have helped to bring this result about and I would like to thank all of those who have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to make it possible, particularly the British ambassador and his team. I hope people will now give Sarah and Nadia the time and space to get to know each other again after such a long time apart."

Detective Superintendent Phil Owen, head of Greater Manchester police's safeguarding vulnerable persons unit, said it that had been a "tortuous" two years for Taylor, who he has spoken to "two or three times every week for the past two years".He said: "It brings to an end two years of worry, heartbreak and upheaval for Sarah and her family. They can now concentrate on becoming a complete family again." Media coverage of the case, in the Guardian and BBC in particular, he said, had "no doubt" encouraged the Libyans to help. Plans for the mother and daughter's return to the UK have yet to be finalised, said Owen. Libya is a difficult country to negotiate with on such matters – largely because it has not signed the 1980 Hague convention relating to abducted children, the multilateral treaty designed to make it relatively easy to return such children between member countries.

[Al-khiyal]

Kidnapped British girl who was taken to Libya is reunited with mother

December 30, 2009 -- A British girl abducted by her father and taken to Libya more than two years ago has been reunited with her mother in Tripoli, UK police confirmed today. Nadia Fawzi, now six, was taken by Fawzi Abuarghub in May 2007 and was denied any contact with her mother, Sarah Taylor, from Wigan, Greater Manchester. In July, the prime minister, Gordon Brown, asked the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, for his help in the case.

[Al-khiyal]

Abducted Wigan girl Nadia Fawzi returns from Libya

February 14, 2010 -- A girl from Wigan who spent almost three years in Libya after being abducted by her father is back home. Nadia Fawzi, aged six, arrived back at Manchester Airport with her mother Sarah Taylor, 34, on Sunday afternoon. Her father, Fawzi Abu Arghub, took her out of the UK in May 2007 under the pretence he was attending a party. The pair were reunited in December 2009 after Nadia was tracked down by British Embassy staff. Her grandparents said they were "ecstatic" at her return. There were emotional scenes at the airport as Nadia's extended family, including grandmother Dot, greeted the pair. Speaking minutes after reuniting her daughter with her family, Ms Taylor said: "I've really had a lot of support here and I can't ask for much more. I just did it - I got there in the end."

Following the abduction, Ms Taylor left her job and moved to Libya to find her daughter. She was awarded custody by the Libyan courts, but Mr Abu Arghub refused to disclose the whereabouts of their daughter. Ms Taylor and Nadia were finally reunited in the Libyan capital in December. Dot Taylor, from Hindley Green, Wigan, said: "We are so happy, we are ecstatic to have her home. Now we just want to spend some time together alone as a family."

Ms Taylor's campaign was supported by her MP, Health Secretary Andy Burnham. Mr Burnham, who was among those at the airport, thanked the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary David Miliband, former Prime Minister Tony Blair and the British Ambassador Sir Vincent Fean for their help. In a statement, he said: "Sarah has been travelling alone on the hardest road imaginable for any mother but she is back home tonight and her nightmare is over. Seeing Sarah and Nadia walk together up the ramp at Manchester Airport was an emotional moment that I'll never forget." The Leigh MP said he would also like to thank Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi and his son Saif "for responding to a humanitarian request for help and working with us to bring this day about".

[Aayesha]

Great to hear there is a happy ending.