Labour MP Ann Cryer has called for tougher international rules on protecting children from being snatched in tug-of-love battles and taken abroad.

And she is being backed by Bradford mum Amy Grimshaw, who has been reunited with her son Daniel after a 12 week abduction ordeal.

Mrs Cryer, MP for Keighley, wants Pakistan and Bangladesh to adopt proposals, made at the Hague Convention, which would help combat child abduction.

She made her call at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg during a debate on international adoption and the rights of children.

She wants the two countries to ratify the 1993 Hague Convention, which calls for countries to acknowledge the legal rights of parents in foreign countries.

"At present there is no reciprocal deal with countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh to get children back to their legal parent. The rights of the child must be paramount where custody is concerned," she said.

In her speech she highlighted the case of toddler Daniel Grimshaw, who was reunited with his mum last week after being snatched in a Bradford street in November.

Police suspected he may have been whisked abroad by his estranged father, Murzhar Muhmood, who has been missing fromm his Eccleshill home since the abduction.

Daniel was successfully reunited with mum Amy after help from the Bradford and District Ethnic Minorities Community and Police Liaison Committee.

Amy, 18, said: "I went to see Ann Cryer when Daniel was missing. She was extremely helpful and explained the options open to us.

"I welcome her call for countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh to sign up to the Child Abduction Convention.

"Thankfully everything has worked out well for us and Daniel is back home, but there was a time when we thought he may have been abroad."

Mrs Cryer also quoted the plight of an Asian woman who was left in Pakistan while her husband brought his daughter back to Britain.

"The father has disappeared into the West Yorkshire Asian community," she said.

"It is almost certain he will not bring up his daughter alone and will pass her on to relatives to raise who have not had the benefit of careful vetting by the appropriate authority."

And Mrs Cryer referred to a family which tried to side-step UK adoption laws by passing a baby off as their own in a bid to get it into the UK.

Last summer, Parliament approved a Bill which would enable the Government to ratify the Adoption (Intercountry Aspects) Act, later this year.

But Mrs Cryer fears that neither Pakistan nor Bangladesh will follow the same example because it is against Islamic custom.

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