Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA) began his official three-day visit to India today. For one Belgian father, however, this trip could be the best opportunity to bring his six-year-old daughter home.
Davy De Witte, 45, from Waasmunster (East Flanders), has asked De Wever to bring the case of his six-year-old daughter Raïa to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attention when the two meet on Thursday.
De Witte has never met Raïa in person. His custody dispute with the child's mother Nisha dates back more than six years. At the time, Nisha, who was married to another man at the time she got pregnant from De Witte, returned to her husband once the pregnancy began. When Raïa was born, Nisha's husband was listed as the child's father on her birth certificate.
After a lengthy custody dispute, in which De Witte was never able to meet his daughter, a Belgian court recognised De Witte as Raïa’s biological and legal father and ordered that contact between the two must be established when Raïa was four.
However, that meeting never occurred.
According to VRT NWS, Nisha reportedly stated in court that De Witte was “just a donor” and that he needed to “get lost”. It also eventually came to light that Nisha and her husband were unable to conceive.
In February 2025, just two days before De Witte was to meet his daughter for the first time, Nisha fled Belgium to India and took Raïa with her. A subsequent international alert was put out over concerns that Raïa had been taken abroad without De Witte’s consent.
De Witte says Nisha was stopped in Lille (France) while travelling towards London on her way to India. Belgian and French authorities were contacted, but she was ultimately allowed to continue after telling officials that she was travelling to India to search for her biological parents.
The mother and child’s current whereabouts are unknown.
There is another major obstacle in the case: India is not part of the Hague Convention on international child abduction. This limits legal options available to Belgian authorities while they seek Raïa’s return. However, De Witte has appealed to Belgium's Federal Government for help. The Foreign Affairs Ministry has confirmed it is following the case and is awaiting the outcome of the judicial proceedings.
For now, De Witte is looking at Thursday’s meeting between the prime ministers as an opportunity for a massive breakthrough in the case and a push for greater cooperation between the two countries to bring his daughter home.
