How to stop child abduction by a parent

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How can parents seek help from the ICA to stop their spouse from trying to abduct their children?

In Singapore, there have been many instances of child abduction by one parent, that is, one parent attempting to illegally take the children out of Singapore. Despite having a Court Order or an injunction in place to restrain parties from bringing their children out of Singapore without an order from the Court or parties’ consent, the parent remaining in Singapore would face a difficult time preventing the other parent from wilfully breaching the Court Order or injunction.

However, there is now a new measure in place to assist these parents. From 1 January 2019, parents who have been granted a Court Order or an injunction restraining parents from taking their children out of jurisdiction without an order from the Court or parties’ consent can apply for assistance from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to prevent the other parent from leaving the country with the children. The addition of ICA’s help comes as a relief for many parents, who are now able to more effectively restrain any attempts to abduct their children. The procedure to seek the ICA’s assistance is laid out below.

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Procedure for seeking assistance to stop child abduction:

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(1)    Parent to sign an undertaking

The parent who has been granted a Court Order or an injunction restraining parents from bringing their children out of Singapore without an order from the Court or parties’ consent must personally sign an undertaking in the prescribed Form 190A of Appendix A to the Family Justice Court’s Practice Directions.

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(2)    File the undertaking on e-Litigation

The undertaking must be filed in the e-Litigation system, which is an online filing system for Court documents. The document should be filed under the document code “Other Supporting Document”.

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(3)    Service of relevant documents on ICA

After the undertaking has been filed, a copy of the extracted Court Order or injunction and the undertaking are to be sent to the ICA via a specific ICA email address, ICA_FJC_Notification@ica.gov.sg. The email must be sent during ICA’s working hours and at least one working day in advance before the ICA is to act on the Court Order or injunction. ICA’s working hours are as follows:

• Mondays to Fridays: 8am to 5pm
• Public Holiday Eves: 8am to 12pm
• Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays: Closed.

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(4)    Send a copy to the other parent or his or her solicitors

The email sent to the ICA containing the Court Order or injunction and the undertaking should be copied to the other parent or his or her solicitors via email or ordinary mail, whichever is applicable.

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(5)    Response from the ICA

If all of the steps above are complied with, the ICA will be able to assist and act on the Court Order or injunction by the next working day.

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ABOUT PKWA FAMILY LAW

At PKWA Law, our team of Family Lawyers are consistently named as leading Singapore family lawyers by respected independent legal publications such as Asian Legal Business, Singapore Business Review, Global Law Experts and Doyle’s Guide to Singapore Family Lawyers. 

Contact us at tel 6854-5336 for a free first consultation. 

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