<p>
	The Department of Foreign Affairs has expressed concern at a rise in the number of children being abducted by a parent and taken abroad.</p>
<p>
	Twenty-six cases were recorded last year and 22 in 2012, according to briefing documents prepared for new Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan.</p>
<p>
	Officials told the minister cases of parental child abduction &quot;continue to rise each year&quot;.</p>
<p>
	However, such cases rarely end up being disclosed in the media unless they result in a prosecution and have traditionally not been publicised by authorities.</p>
<p>
	The highest profile case of child abduction in recent years was that of Lebanese-born criminal Hassan Hassan, who was jailed for two years after abducting his young sons and taking them to Syria for nine months.</p>
<p>
	The boys&#39; mother, Latvian-born Baiba Saulite, was murdered in 2006, shorty after the boys were returned to her. The case remains unsolved despite a lengthy investigation.</p>
<p>
	Last year&#39;s abductions were among 1,500 cases dealt with by the department where Irish people got into some form of serious trouble abroad.</p>
<p>
	Other incidents included kidnappings, arrests, accidents and hospitalisation.</p>
<p>
	Some 225 Irish citizens died abroad during 2013, an increase of 31 on the number who died in foreign countries the previous year.</p>
<p>
	There were 255 Irish citizens arrested last year, compared with 290 in 2012.</p>
<p>
	Officials said contact from families of people in some sort of trouble increases greatly during June, July and August.</p>
<p>
	These months accounted for half of all emergencies notified to the department last year.</p>
<p>
	The highest number of so-called &quot;consular emergencies&quot; occurred in Spain, followed by Australia, the US, Britain, Canada, France, Thailand, Portugal, the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines, Italy, India, the Netherlands, China, Vietnam and New Zealand.</p>
<p>
	The response to these incidents often involves both embassy or consular staff on the ground and department staff back in Ireland.</p>
<p>
	Assisted</p>
<p>
	This was the situation in the case of convicted drugs mule Michaella McCollum, who was jailed for six years and eight months in Peru last year.</p>
<p>
	As Ireland does not have an embassy in Peru, officials were dispatched from the embassy in Mexico and were assisted by a consular team back in Ireland.</p>
<p>
	They ensured Ms McCollum&#39;s family was kept abreast of developments in the case and also monitored her successful application for a transfer to a prison in Northern Ireland.</p>
<p>
	The department has set up a section on its website where people traveling abroad can register their contact details &quot;in the event of an emergency or crisis situation&quot;.</p>
<p>
	During the Arab Spring in 2011, the department set up an emergency crisis assistance team to help Irish citizens leave trouble zones.</p>
<p>
	This team arranged the evacuation of around 400 people from Libya. Two Air Corps planes were used to fly the evacuees, made up of Irish and EU citizens, to Malta.</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/concern-voiced-over-surge-in-child-abduction-cases-30510019.html">http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/concern-voiced-over-surge-in-child-abduction-cases-30510019.html</a></p>
