to ask court to refuse ex permission to take DC to Middle East?

[donners312]

My Ex has made threats and put it in writing that i would not see the DC again if they were in the M.E. with him.
Will a court allow him to take their passports and go abroad for holiday.
We lived in the M.E. for our whole marriage and the DC (10 and 12) were brought up there until we returned to the UK 2 years ago and are settled and happy here now and rarely see Ex.
He has also asked for their both certs so guess he could just order them new PPs anyway?
I am very worried as he has behaved so irrationally and unreasonable for the past two years.
He also pays NO maintenance so how can he afford a holiday if he cannot pay a penny towards their upbringing.
We are all British but i don't trust him to take them and bring them back.

..Although Hissy it won't prevent him obtaining fake passports - sadly there is a market for those and he could obtain passports from his own nation I suspect if his children can have dual nationality there.

From the OP, he's british, so yes a dodgy passport is possible, but that's where alerting borders and the passport office will help, but AFAICS he's not got access to a separate nationality.

If he has even hinted at abducting the kids to the ME, he should have NO unsupervised access at all.

I did however LOVE the idea of the spoon in underwear to enable them to be pulled aside. that's a brilliant idea

You should also do some reading here www.reunite.org/ They have loads of experience in international child abduction and help to prevent it happening.

Speak to a solicitor as soon as you can re a prohibited steps order. My XH threatened to abduct (via email - the fool!) DS when he was a baby to take him back to XH's country of origin.

I contacted the passport office to explain the situation so a new passport could not be applied for by him, my solicitor also wrote them a letter and then contacted the Border Agency to have Port Authority alerts put into place which meant that DS's name would be flagged up if he tried to take him out of the country.

This was almost 16 years ago and I'm not sure if systems may have changed somewhat since then.

Thanks so much for all these links and tips!

The one problem is the DC would probably LOVE to go - they have loads of friends there and would maybe consider it home (kind off) but i a very close to the children and don't think they would want to be separated from me for good.

If he said it was just holiday they would jump at the chance and probably hate me for saying no.

I was about to suggest the Reunite charity (it has a free helpline) but the above poster beat me to it! The main problem for the O/P is if the ex takes the children to a country which is not a signatory to The Hague Convention.

I am intrigued about the 'spoon in underwear'....could someone please explain how this works? Is it to have girls stopped at airport security screening?

The spoon in the underwear was thought of by Karma Nirvana. If a girl gets to the airport and dare not say that she does not want to leave the country, if she has a spoon in her pants she will be taken away for a personal search. At that point she can tell the authorities that she is leaving against her will.

Presumably he wants the birth certificates to get them other passports, so I'd be seeing a family lawyer, OP.

I realise you've probably already thought of this, OP, but presumably you are also seeking to prevent him taking the children anywhere out of the country, not just the ME? E.g. If they (with permission) got a ferry to France camping for the weekend there's nothing to stop him travelling on from there, as presumably any alerts/ controls on the DC's passports would only flag up at UK borders?

I hate to mention it, but if he has access to someone who can provide the children with dodgy passports, what's to stop them being issued in changed names - or at least changed enough to avoid a pick-up from the authorities?

I know - I do think of all these things and it's just so worrying.

Is it worth having an honest conversation with the children about your concerns if they went away with their dad?

Also children of about 13 can decide what parent to live with pretty often. In fact I know a father who got full residence and took the children to live in Dubai with his new wife. Their mother has been written out of the picture - she has no relationship with them. It's very very sad. I think the father just had more money or ability in convincing an English court to give the children to him - that was in English courts however.