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Court bars man from moving children to Spain

SINGAPORE — Disallowing a Singaporean man from relocating to Spain with his new family and two of three children from his previous marriage, the High Court has ruled that the move is not in the children’s interests.

SINGAPORE — Disallowing a Singaporean man from relocating to Spain with his new family and two of three children from his previous marriage, the High Court has ruled that the move is not in the children’s interests.

The man had wanted to try living in Spain because his current wife, who is Spanish but a permanent resident here, cannot practise as a doctor in Singapore, but Judicial Commissioner (JC) Debbie Ong said this would mean uprooting the children from their lives here and reducing their contact with their American mother.

“I find that, on balance, the need to relocate is not as strong as the need for the family to remain in Singapore at this time,” said JC Ong in dismissing the father’s appeal against the District Court’s refusal last year to allow his “unreasonable” relocation.

Children have been allowed to relocate in most recent reported court decisions, except one, wrote JC Ong in her judgment made publicly available yesterday. In those cases, the courts seemed to have focused more on whether the custodial parents were reasonable and less on the loss of the relationship with the other parent, she noted.

While a decision to relocate may not be unreasonable or in bad faith, it is not necessarily the same as a decision made in the children’s best interests, she said. It is important not to focus so much on the reasonable wishes of the custodial parent, such that there is “practically a presumption in favour of relocation once it is found that the primary carer’s decision is not unreasonable”, she added.

Factors the judge considered included the man’s reasons for relocation, the uprooting of the children and the loss of the relationship with their mother. While ties between the mother and children deteriorated with the breakdown of the marriage, which ended in November 2009, JC Ong noted that she was trying to turn things around. Relocation would likely sound a death knell for the relationship, she wrote.

The judge also noted that the oldest child is studying at a local polytechnic and intends to continue living here, so relocation would break up the siblings. The two younger children, aged 11 and 14, would also be placed in a different education system in which English was not the main language used.

“While one should not underestimate the risk of negative effects on the child arising from frustrating the plans of the parent who is the child’s primary carer, this must be balanced against the law’s expectations that parents must place the needs of their children before their own,” wrote JC Ong. She added that a refusal to allow relocation did not mean a move was not possible in future.

However, four months before the appeal was heard in January, the man had taken the two younger children to Spain and it is unclear whether they have returned.

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