Comments on: Our meeting with the Under Secretary Kitty Ussher http://www.csahell.com/our-meeting-with-the-under-secretary-kitty-ussher-125.html Child Support Agency Advice and Complaints Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:37:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Martin http://www.csahell.com/our-meeting-with-the-under-secretary-kitty-ussher-125.html/comment-page-1#comment-570 Martin Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:19:21 +0000 http://www.csahell.com/?p=125#comment-570 I am a British citizen who fell foul of laws of this type when I visited Brazil last year to try and see my teenage daughter. I had not seen her for 14 years because her mother had disappeared with her and simply refused to acknowledge any of my my letters emails, cards and presents. The Brazilian courts, The Foreign Office, the British Consulate in Sao Paulo, International Social Social Services, my local MP in the UK, the Office of the Official Solicitor, the Brazilian Embassy in the UK, the FCO Child Abduction Agency, Brazilian Social Services, the Brazilian Federal Authorities and Interpol all either failed to force my ex-wife to allow me access to my daughter or even to trace her (she managed to ignore them or fob them off on the phone for many many years while these agencies connived and led me on a wild-goose chase). In the meantime, my ex-wife managed to get the courts in Sao Paulo to i) have my child fraudulently adopted by her new partner on the grounds that I had disappeared and ii) to issue a spurious claim for child support and an arrest warrant for me without my being summonsed or any court papers delivered(I had had no idea where she was, no access to my daughter for 14 years despite persistent efforts and had resorted to putting money in a UK bank account for my daughter). In a desperate attempt to see my daughter and to force the issue by physically offering the accumulated thusands of pounds, I went to Sao Paulo last August only to be arrested by federal agents at the airport. I was held in a 4m X 3m cell with 15 - 20 other men (sleeping on the bare floor like slaves on a slave ship) for 15 days. They were all supposed to be there for child support but most were actually hardened criminals who just happened to have been nicked for child support. The law that exists in Brazil exists in order to get money from 'errant' fathers (why not mothers?) and creates a Catch 22 of debtors' jails where men are incarcerated without charge for up to 90 days on the word of bitter, jealous and vengeful ex-partners - many of whom want to have the man banged up because he has found a new partner. If men do not have the money, they can't get out and if they do they can't get to it in order to pay it because they are behind bars. IT'S A CHARTER FOR VENGEFUL EX-PARTNERS WHO ARE NOT FORCED TO GIVE FATHERS ACCESS TO THEIR CHILDREN AND WITH WHOM THE COURTS CONNIVE IN THIS. IS THIS WHAT THE UK GOVERNMENT WANTS? I was finally released after 15 days on a legal challenge. I still have not seen my daughter because my ex-wife has still refused to cooperate and her court action means that i) I am not the legal father of my child and ii) I can be re-arrested if I return to Brazil. The Brazilian authorities and the UK ones refuse to respond to my pleas. I am a British citizen who fell foul of laws of this type when I visited Brazil last year to try and see my teenage daughter. I had not seen her for 14 years because her mother had disappeared with her and simply refused to acknowledge any of my my letters emails, cards and presents. The Brazilian courts, The Foreign Office, the British Consulate in Sao Paulo, International Social Social Services, my local MP in the UK, the Office of the Official Solicitor, the Brazilian Embassy in the UK, the FCO Child Abduction Agency, Brazilian Social Services, the Brazilian Federal Authorities and Interpol all either failed to force my ex-wife to allow me access to my daughter or even to trace her (she managed to ignore them or fob them off on the phone for many many years while these agencies connived and led me on a wild-goose chase).

In the meantime, my ex-wife managed to get the courts in Sao Paulo to i) have my child fraudulently adopted by her new partner on the grounds that I had disappeared and ii) to issue a spurious claim for child support and an arrest warrant for me without my being summonsed or any court papers delivered(I had had no idea where she was, no access to my daughter for 14 years despite persistent efforts and had resorted to putting money in a UK bank account for my daughter). In a desperate attempt to see my daughter and to force the issue by physically offering the accumulated thusands of pounds, I went to Sao Paulo last August only to be arrested by federal agents at the airport. I was held in a 4m X 3m cell with 15 – 20 other men (sleeping on the bare floor like slaves on a slave ship) for 15 days. They were all supposed to be there for child support but most were actually hardened criminals who just happened to have been nicked for child support.

The law that exists in Brazil exists in order to get money from ‘errant’ fathers (why not mothers?) and creates a Catch 22 of debtors’ jails where men are incarcerated without charge for up to 90 days on the word of bitter, jealous and vengeful ex-partners – many of whom want to have the man banged up because he has found a new partner. If men do not have the money, they can’t get out and if they do they can’t get to it in order to pay it because they are behind bars. IT’S A CHARTER FOR VENGEFUL EX-PARTNERS WHO ARE NOT FORCED TO GIVE FATHERS ACCESS TO THEIR CHILDREN AND WITH WHOM THE COURTS CONNIVE IN THIS. IS THIS WHAT THE UK GOVERNMENT WANTS?

I was finally released after 15 days on a legal challenge. I still have not seen my daughter because my ex-wife has still refused to cooperate and her court action means that i) I am not the legal father of my child and ii) I can be re-arrested if I return to Brazil. The Brazilian authorities and the UK ones refuse to respond to my pleas.

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