Dubai A Dubai-based British national of Indian origin is at his wits end after his divorced wife fled the UAE taking their two children without his consent. Worse, she is now suing him from the UK, despite the Dubai Courts settling their divorce case in his favour and giving him custody of the kids.
Another resident — an Indian — is wanted by the police in his home country following a case filed against him and his family by his wife under the draconian Domestic Violence Act of India.
Harassment case
The working couple who had major differences had approached the Family Guidance Reformation Centre in Dubai where the woman agreed to give custody of her two boys aged 14 and 12 to her husband. A mutual settlement agreement to this effect was to be submitted to Dubai Courts. However, the woman went to India with their two children, stayed with her in-laws for a month and then filed a case of harassment.
“Such scenarios are becoming all too common in the UAE,” said Almana Zafeer, Senior Lawyer and Managing Partner of Musthafa & Almana Lawyers and Legal Consultants in Dubai.
Zafeer said she receives 12-15 enquiries about child custody by cross-border couples every month, of which around eight end up in the courts. She said husbands are increasingly finding themselves under pressure as their estranged or divorced wives seek to get the better of them from their home countries.
“The UAE allows its residents to pursue their legal rights in personal status matters as per the laws of their home countries. The courts adjudicate cases accordingly. But because this arrangement is not properly understood by other jurisdictions, those who have judgements against them tend to go back to their home countries and file the same cases again,” said Zafeer.
In the British national’s case, she said, “We got the Dubai Courts’ child custody orders in favour of the husband. But they cannot be executed under the Hague Convention as the UAE is not a signatory and the children are out of the UAE. The issue has to be resolved through other channels like the extradition treaty.”
She spoke of another Dubai-based Asian man with a British passport whose wife cheated on him and is threatening to sue him from the UK, even as their case which has already gone to the Dubai Courts has granted him custody of their three children.
“Most of these families are well-off. The women are generally financially independent and they feel they are on strong ground in their home countries, so they wait to go back and reopen cases against their husbands from there,” said Zafeer.
