Heartbreak for mother as Mimi, 6, flies off to her father

Ayu had to farewell her raven-haired girl at Sydney Airport without knowing when she would see her next.

‘I don’t want to make her sad ... but I am also human.’ Ayu with daughter Mimi. Picture: Jane Dempster

At six years of age, Mimi speaks three languages and has dreams of becoming a ballet dancer.

Yesterday her Indonesian mother, Ayu, had to take the heartbreaking step of farewelling her raven-haired girl at Sydney airport without knowing when she would see her next.

Mimi has been ordered by the Family Court of Australia to return to The Netherlands to live with her father under The Hague convention on child abduction.

It has been a bewildering and expensive four months for Ayu, who arrived in Sydney from Jakarta with Mimi and her Australian husband just before Christmas.

“I am feeling very sad,” she told The Australian yesterday through her tears. “I am trying to be as normal­ as possible. She was crying and I don't want to make her sad ... but I am also human.”

On Boxing Day, they were served with legal documents by a private investigator. Australian authorities had launched legal proceedings on behalf of Mimi’s father, who was seeking to recover his daughter.

Since October, Mimi had been living with her mother, stepfather and two younger half-brothers in Indonesia, which is not a signatory to the child abduction convention.

When the family arrived in Australia, Mimi’s father pounced.

According to Ayu, both parents had agreed their daughter would attend her first year of school in Amsterdam and after that would return to live with her mother in Jakarta. Ayu cannot obtain a visa to live in The Netherlands.

Mimi’s father says he sent his daughter on a short holiday to visit her mother, and that his former wife failed to return her.

Australian taxpayers have had to foot the bill for authorities here to prosecute the case on behalf of the father, while Ayu and her husband had to scramble to find $120,000 for their legal costs.

Just before Easter, the trial judge rejected the father’s bid to recover his daughter, finding that Mimi had lived more of her short life in Indonesia than in The ­Netherlands. He likened the ­parents’ agreement to sending a child ­overseas to boarding school. However, on April 15 a panel of three Family Court judges overturned that decision, ruling that at the time her mother kept Mimi, her habitual residence had been The Netherlands.

The little girl has now been sent back to the country, where she will be the subject of another legal battle to decide where she should live long-term.

Custody disputes such as this are gaining more attention because­ of the botched attempt involving­ 60 Minutes by Brisbane mum Sally Faulkner to recover her two children from Lebanon.

Mimi’s mother said the father works three jobs in retail and hospitality, six days a week, and Mimi was in care until 6 o’clock each night. Ayu cares for Mimi’s two little­ half-brothers full-time.

“She is going to be fine with her dad,” Ayu said. “It’s not like her dad is a cruel dad but she is going to be a bit lonely there. A mother and a father are quite different. Of course it’s fun with your dad but sometimes you just need to be with your mother, too.”

Mimi’s lawyer, Carly Middleton, a partner at Barkus Doolan, believes that with so many couples entering into international relationships, it is time for The Hague Convention to be updated.

“One problem with The Hague Convention is it doesn’t look at the best interests principle of the child and it doesn’t take into account what the repercussions could be ... in that other jurisdiction where the child is to be returned,” she said.

Ayu has two weeks to appeal to the High Court against the Family Court’s decision but said she and her husband did not have enough funds. Instead, they are making plans to move to Australia, where they believe their chances of gaining custody of Mimi will be higher because it is a signatory to The Hague Convention. Names have been changed for legal reasons