No happy travels for single parents
Single parents are faced with a lot of paper work and legal fees should they choose to travel with their children, following the implementation of the new travel laws.
Durban North mum, Candice McFarlane’s, plans to travel out of the country with her son were shattered last week when she discovered that an unabridged birth certificate was no longer sufficient documentation. This was according to the new travel laws, which came into affect on 1 June.
According to the new regulations in situations where one parent will be travelling with the child, the parent in question needs to produce the unabridged birth certificates as well as an affidavit from the other parent consenting to the travel plans.
However, as a single mother McFarlane’s wrote on the Durban North Neighbour’s Facebook page that she had not had contact with her son’s father in years and was therefore unable to obtain his consent.
“I have his unabridged birth certificate, but because his father’s name is on it, I have been told that he is never going to be able to travel because I don’t know where his father is, and i can’t get the consent from the father,” she wrote in the post.
Several other parents commented on McFarlane’s post saying they were having similar problems.
According to the new laws these parents have two options; they can either apply for a court order or ‘a letter of special circumstances’ from home affairs.
Many have argued that this process will not only be time consuming, but also expensive.
The new regulations were implemented in an effort to combat child abduction and trafficking.
