How to prevent children leaving australia

In many cases children and parents may have dual citizenship and the threat of children being taken overseas with the intention of never returning can be very real.

Commonly parents may decide for one or the other parent to hold the passports for the children and that can be part of a strategy to prevent children being taken overseas. However, for a number of reasons including the possibility of multiple passports being issued, the holding of passports is not sufficient to prevent children leaving Australia.

To prevent a child being removed from Australia, immediate action can be taken to apply for an Family Law Watchlist Order that enables the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service to prevent the child leaving the country.

The Family Law Watchlist Order form can be filed with the AFP if you have:-

• a Court Order (made under s34 or s68B) or a parenting order that limits or prevents the child’s overseas travel and which also requests the AFP to place the child on the Family Law Watchlist; or

• filed an application with the Court for a Court Order (to be made under s34 or s68B) or a parenting order that limits or prevents the child’s overseas travel, and which also requests the AFP to place the child on the Family Law Watchlist; or

• filed an appeal with the Court against an order of the Court relating to the child that limits or prevents the child’s overseas travel that had requested the AFP to place the child on the Family Law Watchlist.

The intention of filing the Watchlist Order form with the AFP once a Court Application is filed is to provide protection and prevention of the child being removed from the country while awaiting a first Court date.

This is a particularly complicated area of family law and given the importance of the task it is critical to seek urgent expert family law advice.

Australia is part of the Hague Convention, which creates a process for children to be returned to Australia from overseas countries. However, not all countries are signatories to the Hague Convention and as such for some overseas countries, there is no process to recover a child once they are taken to that country.

Prevention is better than cure, and the process for returning a child from a Hague Convention Country is time consuming, costly and sometimes unpredictable. For this reason we strongly recommend urgent legal advice and action to prevent a child being taken from Australia, rather than attempting to recover them after they have departed.

Due to the complex nature of the law on preventing a child leaving the country you should not rely on this article in the absence of legal advice.

If you are concerned that your children may be removed from the country we recommend urgent legal advice and action. Speak to David of our Ipswich office for expert family law advice.