Emirati father fails to prevent divorced wife and child from travelling outside UAE

UAE Personal Status Law prevents a divorced mother, who has custody of her children, from travelling outside the UAE unless she has the written consent of the father of the child, according to a new legal principle established by Dubai Court of Cassation.

But this consent is not required if the father of the child is living outside UAE, the court has ruled.

The court rejected the request of an Emirati father to prevent his Dutch wife and their child from traveling outside the UAE.

The court justified its ruling on the fact that the father is a permanent resident of the Netherlands.

The court pointed out that though Article 149 of the UAE Personal Status Law requires the written consent of the father of the child under the custody of his divorced wife, this condition need be observed only if the father and the child are resident in the same country. This is to enable him to have access to his child.

Since, in this case, the father is living in the Netherlands, his written consent is not required for the mother and child to travel outside the UAE.

In this case, an Emirati father had filed a suit against his ex-wife in the Dubai Shariah Court to prevent her and the child from travelling outside the UAE. The judge barred the child but not the mother from travelling.

The mother then approached the Court of Appeal which rejected her plea. She then appealed to the Court of Cassation which issued the above judgement enabling both her and the child to travel outside the UAE.