Max Lansman summarises judgment in P, Re (Inherent Jurisdiction Return: Return Order: Welfare Analysis) [2023] EWHC 225 (Fam) for Family Law Week.
This was a case about welfare analysis in a father's application for the return of his child to Nigeria. The case was complicated by the mother and child’s pending appeal against a refusal to grant them asylum and findings of domestic abuse made against the father.
Mrs Justice Knowles held on a very fine balance that the child should return to Nigeria, on the basis of some stringent conditions. The magnetic welfare factors were the child's meaningful relationship with both her parents, her secure legal status in Nigeria and her identity as a Nigerian child.
The court was satisfied that returning the child to Nigeria represented a proportionate interference in the Article 8 ECHR rights of the child and her mother.
Read the full summary on Family Law Week.