Prohibited Steps Order advice - non-Hague convention country

[Nearlyalldone]

My ex is from a non-Hague convention country and has been telling the children that he wishes to take them there for a holiday. There is a genuine risk that my ex and/or his family would not allow the children to return if he were to take them there. The children have never been to his home country before and he’s never taken them abroad on holiday by himself before.

Both children are under 10 and I have a ‘lives with’ child arrangements order which means that he needs my permission to take them abroad. I’ve previously made it very clear to my ex in writing that he does not have my permission to take the children to his home country. However, the children are increasingly talking about going on holiday to the country and it appears that he’s talking to them as if it’s a certainty that he’ll be taking them. Via video chats, his family in the home country have apparently also leading the children to believe that they’ll be having a holiday there soon.

I’m thinking of potentially applying for a Prohibited Steps Order to legally prevent my ex from taking the children to his home country. Does anyone have experience in this area? I’d be very grateful for your advice.

Thanks

It is the fact you have PR that means he cannot take your children abroad without your consent. That would be the case regardless of the 'lives with' order.

If he takes the children out of the country without your consent, he will be committing the criminal offence of Child Abduction, so he is already legally prevented from taking the children to his home country. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean he won't do it.

Where are the children's passports? Are they entitled to passports from his country?

I am very out of date for this area but have a look at Reunite:-
www.reunite.org/

Thanks everyone.

My ex probably wouldn’t sneak them out of the country outright, but I suspect that he might try to take me to court for a ‘specific issues order’ in order to take the children to his home country. I hold the children's passports. I worry about his family’s influence, he might genuinely just plan to take the children for a holiday but his family are very upset about our marriage breakdown and the country has a patriarchal set-up where children stay with the father/fathers family in the event of a split. He has also demonised me to his family. It’s possible that his family might remove the children from his care for what they think is ‘his own good’ during the visit.

I was thinking that I could preempt his potential specific issues court order with my own prohibited steps order application to permanently block him from taking the children to his home country (or to any other non-Hague convention country). Does this sound like a good idea? I wanted to sound this out here before approaching a solicitor.

Thanks.

As per my previous post, he will be committing a criminal offence if he takes your child out of the country without your consent. However, a PSO may help to emphasise to him that he must not do so. It can also order him to hand over their passports or other travel documents if he has them.

Thank you. It’s possible that my ex might try to legally take the children abroad by applying to the court for permission to override my refusal. Is it worth me just applying for the PSO before this to block him?

If you get a PSO he can apply for it to be varied or discharged. It doesn't block him from applying to take your children out of the country, although it does put an additional obstacle in his way.

I'm not sure if you can flag up with the passport office that they are an abduction risk by their father so any report of passports being lost or stolen must come from you.

OP honestly the best thing you can do is contact Reunite asap. I used to go to court on child abduction cases and they can also put you in touch with the best lawyers.

Thank you - I’ll contact Reunite on Monday

I’ve attempted this before - they put a temporary caveat in place for the children but said that I couldn’t make it permanent because my child arrangement order didn’t specify anything about passports.

I’ve attempted this before - they put a temporary caveat in place for the children but said that I couldn’t make it permanent because my child arrangement order didn’t specify anything about passports.

Thank you - this is helpful to know