She accuses her husband of leaving them in Morocco without passports: Larache ruling set aside

After marrying in Morocco, the couple settled in the Netherlands, where their child was born in 2022.

According to the mother’s account, the family went on holiday to Morocco at the beginning of August 2022. There, her husband allegedly left her with their baby and then returned to the Netherlands, taking their passports with him.

She then discovered that he had initiated divorce proceedings before the Larache court of first instance. With the help of the embassy, the mother and child managed to return to the Netherlands at the beginning of October.

These disputes, in which a child is taken to Morocco despite parental authority being exercised in another country, regularly place families between several judicial systems.

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On 21 December 2022, the Larache court pronounced the divorce. This part of the ruling was subsequently entered in the Dutch civil-status registers. But the Moroccan decision also awarded the mother guardianship of the child.

Divorce recognized, but not the decision concerning the child

The Zeeland-West-Brabant court refuses to recognize this second aspect. It finds that the child, born and raised in the Netherlands, had maintained habitual residence there despite the two months spent in Morocco.

This residence is decisive. Morocco and the Netherlands are parties to the 1996 Hague Convention on the Protection of Children. Its Article 23 allows a measure taken by an authority that lacked jurisdiction to be refused.

The court therefore considers that the Moroccan justice system could not rule on parental authority over this child. This part of the Larache ruling cannot be recognized in the Netherlands, according to the decision of the Zeeland-West-Brabant court issued on 3 April and published on 22 May 2026.

In the absence of a recognized foreign decision on this matter, Dutch law takes over. Since the child was born during the marriage, both parents jointly exercised parental authority.

The mother nevertheless sought to end this arrangement. She explained that the father rarely saw their child, was difficult to contact, and did not comply with the visitation rights established in November 2024. In July 2025, he had even been ordered to comply with this arrangement under penalty of a fine.

According to her, he effectively lived in Morocco or Spain, and his absence prevented her from making certain decisions, particularly applying for an identity document for the child.

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Despite being regularly summoned, the father did not appear at the hearing on 23 March 2026. The court held that his prolonged lack of involvement prevented the mother from properly carrying out her responsibilities. It ended joint parental authority and granted it exclusively to her.

The result is unusual: the Dutch judge refuses to allow the Larache decision to grant parental authority to the mother, before granting her that authority himself by applying Dutch law.