http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/02/11/ndads11.xml

Fathers to fight removal of children overseas

By Lois Rogers

February 11, 2007, The Sunday Telegraph (UK)---Record numbers of children are being taken to live abroad by their mothers against the wishes of their fathers as a result of bitter divorce battles.

The number of contested court applications for "leave to remove" children has risen to more than 1,200 a year from only a few cases in the 1990s, says Resolution, a family lawyers' group. Despite protests from thousands of fathers, not one has won an appeal against such an order being granted by the courts.

Fathers from the Poel Group, which is committed to reversing the trend, claim that some of their members have spent up to £300,000 on protracted battles to maintain contact with their children. Members of the group are to meet officials from the Department of Constitutional Affairs (DCA) to discuss ways of reviewing the family courts' procedures.

David Blakeman, a lawyer and the group's spokesman, said: "Britain has the most generous regime on the planet for women getting divorced. It is accepted that there is a duty for the non-resident parent, usually the father, to provide maintenance, but there is no duty for the mother to maintain contact for the children.

"They have almost complete freedom to do what they like and the majority of fathers do not have the money to contest it."

The issue has also been raised by Steve Davies, the author of The Divorced Dad's Handbook. The book advises men not to engage solicitors because, even if they win the right of access to the child, visiting rights for the estranged father cannot be enforced.

Mr Davies, 42, from Warrington, said that only one in 20 fathers get custody of children after a divorce and 40 per cent lose touch with their families within two years of the marriage breakdown.

"I interviewed at least 50 divorced men and the interests of the child to maintain a relationship with its father are never put above the wishes of the mother," he said.

The problems with the way the law is enforced have been raised by an appeal court judge, who asked not to be named. The judge said that the judiciary should be made aware of the emotional fall-out from such cases.