AN IRISH mother has made a plea to An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to help return her three children who were taken to Algeria.
Dublin mother Gina Davis has launched a petition as she has not seen her three children since they were taken to the north African country by their father on July 5 2015.
Ms Davis says her estranged husband Kamel Fekkar, 53, took the children, who were born in Ireland, from Dublin to Paris, and then on a flight to Algeria where they have remained since.
Ms Davis says she doesn't get to speak to her children very often but when she does, 'they say how much they love us, miss us and want to come home.'
Her daughter Zaineb is now ten years old now and her twins turned seven earlier this month, which she said was an 'extremely difficult' day.
"This is their third birthday away from home, we miss them so much and we know that they are miserable and want to come home.
"I hope and pray that this is the last birthday that they will have to spend without us, Zaineb will be 11 years old on August 18 2018.
"With all of your help, hopefully we can bring my babies home to Ireland before then," she said. "I need An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar to personally intervene and speak to the Algerian President and Prime Minister."
The petition, which was launched at the beginning of this month, currently has over 6,000 signatures.
She wrote: "As their mother, I have already missed so much... They have been away from home for too long already, please help to end this nightmare," she said.
While Ireland is a contracted party to the Hague Convention, which provides an expeditious method to return a child internationally abducted by a parent from one member country to another, Algeria has not entered into the agreement.
