Going abroad with a child, take care of the relevant documents
The holiday season is in full swing. Many citizens go to rest abroad with children. However, there are those who do not take care in advance about the paperwork necessary for children to cross the border, and some even try to fake them.
Therefore, during passport control at checkpoints, there are misunderstandings.
It should be noted that since the beginning of 2021, almost 800 decisions have been made on refusing to cross the state border to leave Ukraine for citizens of Ukraine under the age of 16. Such decisions were made mainly due to the lack of notarized consent of one or both parents. In 2020, there were almost one and a half thousand such cases.
It is worth noting that when planning the illegal export of children abroad, “carriers” often decide on criminal offenses. Among such crimes: offering or providing an improper benefit to an official (Art. 369 of the Criminal Code), illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine (Art. 332 KKU). A significant number of departures of children are accompanied by falsification of documents (Art. 358 KKU). During additional verification measures, border guards often established that one of the parents at the time of issuing a notarized consent for the child's departure was outside Ukraine and physically could not provide such consent. Border guards shall inform the competent authorities of all cases of detection of signs of criminal offenses in order to decide on the initiation of a pre-trial investigation.
It should be recalled that the departure from Ukraine of citizens under the age of 16 is carried out with the consent of both parents (adoptive parents) and accompanied by them or accompanied by persons authorized by them, who at the time of departure from Ukraine have reached the age of 18, including accompanied by members of the crew of the aircraft on which they are heading. At the same time, the notarized consent must indicate the country of direction and the time intervals of the child's stay in it.
More details about the Rules for crossing the state border by citizens of Ukraine can be found at the link: https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/57-95-%D0%BF#Text
You can get advice or report about a possible attempt to illegally export Ukrainian minors abroad using the Dovira service https://dpsu.gov.ua/ua/sluzhba-dovira/
