By Georgina Vallance-Webb, Associate at Stevens & Bolton LLP

 

The breakdown of a marriage or long term partnership can be upsetting for all concerned. For parents it can be even more so if precious holiday plans with a child are denied. Holidays abroad are a special and integral part of a child’s experience. Sadly, it is frequently the case that the children from broken homes are caught in the middle of warring parents when the issue of holidays arises. The need to ask the estranged parent’s permission to take the child for a day trip to Ireland, to a villa holiday in France or a family wedding in Dubai, is not always appreciated.

 In families with international connections, one parent may be anxious that the other parent is planning to steal away with the child permanently. Where lines of communication are strained referral to mediation is an option whereby a neutral and impartial mediator will try to help parents reach agreement. But where trust is irreparably broken that is unlikely to prove successful and the holidaying parent will have no option but to make an application to the court. When deciding whether to grant permission for a holiday, the court will have the child’s welfare as its paramount consideration. Unless travel is proposed to a war torn, politically unsafe country, the court is likely to consider that a holiday abroad with mum or dad is in a child’s best interests.

 

In particular the court will be mindful of whether the holiday destination is a signatory to The Hague Convention. This is an international convention under which legal procedures are agreed with a number of other countries to assist in the return of a child who has been abducted. Child abduction is the removal or retention of a child across an international border by one parent without the consent of the other parent or in contravention of a court order. If a travelling parent absconds to a country that is not a signatory to The Hague Convention there may be no remedy for the abandoned parent to secure the child’s return.

 

In this situation the court has proved itself creative in imposing solutions that enable both the holiday to take place, and the remaining parent to feel confident of the child’s safe return. In one case a six year old girl lived in England. Her mother was English and the father Egyptian. The court said that contact with the father in Cairo was in the child’s interests so that she could see her Egyptian heritage, and maintain relations with her paternal family. However, first the father must enter into an agreement that was valid in Egypt confirming that the child would leave Egypt after contact in that country with no obstacle in the way.

 

The Court went further in a subsequent case. The little boy was 3 years old and had spent his life in England. The mother wished to take the child to the United Arab Emirates to visit her family. As a precondition the mother was ordered to deposit the sum of £50,000 with the court by way of a security bond, to provide the father with copy travel tickets, full details of the travel itinerary and to give solemn declarations on the Koran granting the safe return of the child.

 

When going abroad it’s not just the air tickets and passports that need to be remembered; both parents must be in agreement with the proposed travel plans or a court application may be required.

 

Georgina Vallance-Webb, Associate at Stevens & Bolton LLP, matrimonial department contact details This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it & 01483 734211