GU24P07400 - [2025] EWHC 1587 (Fam)

These proceedings concern the welfare of three children: X, a boy aged 8; and Y and Z, two twin girls, aged 5. The Applicant is the children’s mother, and the Respondent is the children’s father. The family are dual British and Nigerian Nationals. The children lived all their lives in Nigeria until the Applicant brought them to England and Wales on 1 July 2024. The sole issue with which I am concerned is whether or not to make an order for the summary return of the children to Nigeria. I have determined to make a conditional summary return order and set out my reasons for doing so below.

The parties are agreed the children’s welfare is my paramount consideration and despite the variety of applications made, the parties agree they are asking the court to determine the summary return issue through the court’s inherent jurisdiction. My task is neatly summarised by Cobb J (with the agreement of Peter Jackson and Stuart-Smith LJJ) in Re O (Summary Return: Non-Convention Country) [2025] EWCA Civ 660 at paragraph 54:

“An application for a summary return of a child to a non-Hague Convention country under the inherent jurisdiction of the High Court is to be determined simply and straightforwardly by what is in the child's best interests (Re J at [18], [25], [28], [29] and [32]). On an application of this kind, a judge must undertake:

"…a swift, realistic and unsentimental assessment of the best interests of the child, leading, in proper cases, to the prompt return of the child to his or her own country, but not the sacrifice of the child's welfare to some other principle of law". Ormrod LJ in Re R (Minors) (Wardship: Jurisdiction) (1981) 2 FLR 416, at 425.

The requirement for the Judge to undertake this "swift and unsentimental decision", rooted firmly in welfare, was reinforced by Baroness Hale in her speech in Re J at [31] and [41].”

As this is a summary jurisdiction, I set out briefly the evidence and only the main points advanced by the parties for and against the summary return of the children.