Dear Mrs Macaulay,

My wife lives in Jamaica and I live in the United States. My wife recently gave birth to twin girls. In September this year I was informed that she had placed our daughters in some type of foster care, with a nurse named Mrs Beckford, or some type of child centre programme in St Catherine, as she was unable to care for our daughters. She said she would go to the agency on weekends to see them. I want to file for legal custody of my daughters.

I am a United States citizen, who at this time have no information as to which foster care or children’s agency my wife sent our daughters to. She has refused to let me know where our daughters are located.

Being the biological father, I am requesting a list of agencies that may have in their custody my daughters so that I can contact them, by coming to Jamaica to see my daughters and if possible, to provide the necessary information needed to apply for visitation and custody rights in bringing my daughters here to the United States and providing a better life for them.

Any information that you can provide in finding out where my daughters are located would be very helpful and appreciated.

What you have stated in your letter is a terrible wrong being committed by your wife against you and against your children.. It is legally, morally and emotionally wrong.

In addition, it is against the best interests of your children. She has no right in fact or in law to deny you access to your children and she had no right to decide to place them in care without your knowledge and consent. Then for her to refuse to give you information as to the exact kind of arrangement, facility and its address, is a continuity of her wrongful act, which makes the situation more egregious against you and your parental rights and your children’s right to have a relationship with you.

The situation needs to be dealt with urgently. Your wife must be informed that mothers and fathers have equal rights to the custody, care and control and access to their children. They also have equal rights to apply to the court for orders for any of the above regarding their children.

You have clear rights to apply for custody (to make all decisions relating to the life and upbringing of your children); care and control (that your children can live with you and your are responsible for their daily lives) and access (that the non-custodial parent can visit or have the children spend time with him/her on a particular day for some hours) or ‘residential access’ (wherein the children spend weekends and half of holidays with the non-custodial parent).

In the circumstances, wherein your wife has stated clearly that she is not able to take care of the children and has unilaterally taken action to absolve herself of their care, the person who has a legal right to have full custody and care and control of the twins is you, the father. If you do not have their birth certificates, you must apply for certified copies from the Registrar of Births and Deaths Office at Twickenham Park, St Catherine.

You should act as quickly as possible. I am not sending you a list of agencies that may have your daughters, as contacting all of them would take too much time and your wife might have instructed them not to give anyone information about them. You need to use legal orders to obtain first, information and access to your children as soon as possible. I am therefore suggesting that you can act through the Child Protection and Family Services Agency, 48 Duke Street, Kingston. Since you have the name of the nurse, this agency may well have knowledge of her and can make direct contact and may visit and ensure the safety of your children. The agency can assist you by insisting on the observance of your rights and explain the legal situation to your wife and obtain her consent that you have custody and care and control of your daughters with agreed periods of access to her.

If this is not possible, once you have the certified birth certificates, you should apply for custody, care and control of your daughters to the Family Court of the parish of St Catherine, with access to their mother at fixed periods of time. In your application you must also apply for orders to be made that your wife provide all details relating to the facility where she placed your children and with whom and that the twins be produced in court and that you have an immediate interim order for the custody, care and control of your daughters. You must therefore have made arrangements for their residence and care, until the orders are finalised and you can apply to take them with you to your home in the USA.

I trust that I have assisted by showing you quicker paths to tracing and obtaining the legal orders necessary for you to have custody and care and control of them. If you encounter any further obstacle, I shall be happy to assist as best as I can because your daughters’ welfare and their rights must be upheld, so that their best interests are always the paramount consideration.

I wish you and them the very best.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.

DISCLAIMER:

The contents of this article are for informational purposes only and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney.