TODAY Father’s Day, Hafeez Parmasad will be doing what he has been for the past year and a half: looking for his son.
The child, who is now three years, four months old, was taken out of Barbados by its mother in December 2008 – even though there was a court order forbidding both parents from removing the child from the jurisdiction without permission of the court.
Parmasad, a Trinidadian living in Barbados for the past ten years, has only been able to find out that the mother and child left Barbados for the United States. He is now on a one-man hunt to find them and have his son returned.
Parmasad said he and the boy’s mother met about five years ago. The relationship was a good one, but problems began when his son was born.
“The family kept dictating to me what I could and could not do with the baby, and I did not appreciate that because the child wasn’t theirs. “I had a physical fight with the family, and after that I had to make a decision if I wanted to continue seeing my child.” That decision was to apply to the court for visitation rights.
Parmasad received an order granting him access to the child every other Sunday at the mother’s house. But this turned out to be problematic.
The first Sunday he went, he said, he was denied entry to the home, and on the following occasion an argument ensued, the police were called, and he was charged with assaulting his child’s mother. However, Parmasad said, the charges were later dismissed.
Because of the difficulty of seeing the child he went back to the court and filed a complaint against his former girlfriend for breaching the order and asked that it be varied. But Parmasad said that while the court varied the order and allowed him supervised visits with the child at his house every Sunday, as well as an order that neither party could remove the child out of the jurisdiction, it did not deal with the breach of the first order.
He stated that he was upset about this and he was the one who asked the court to make an order about the removal of the child, since he had heard that the child’s mother was planning to leave the island.
The court made provisions for an officer of the Child Care Board to collect the child and bring him to Parmasad’s house for the weekly visits. But after this he saw the child only once.“In December of 2008 I was expecting to have the child but the officer from the Child Care Board turned up at my house with the child’s grandmother and told me that the mother and child were out of the jurisdiction. She could not tell me where they were or when they were coming back.
“I asked my lawyer to make an application for contempt to the court, but she told me that no judge will make an order in the absence of the child’s mother.”
Parmasad said he has since written and met with former Chief Justice Sir David Simmons, former Minister of Family, Youth and Sports Esther Byer-Suckoo and more recently Prime Minister David Thompson.
“The Chief Justice told me that once an order has been breached that I would have to bring papers to court. But because I do not know where the child and his mother are I can’t file those papers.
“I spoke to Mr Thompson just before he announced that he was ill and he told me that he would look into the matter and get back to me. So, since I have not heard him, I figure he is busy looking after his personal health.”
In addition, Parmasad has also sought assistance from the United States Embassy, the Commissioner of Police, the International Police Organisation (Interpol), the Missing and Exploited Children Organisation in the United States, the Men’s Educational Support Association (MESA) and the Ombudsman; but none has been able to help him find his child.Wrote commissioner
“The embassy told me that there was nothing they could do. Interpol told me that they can find out where she is, but the police or the court here would have to give them instructions. I wrote the commissioner and I met with a senior police officer who told me that there was nothing they could do; that I would have to write the Chief Justice.
“I even told the police that I wanted to file a missing person’s report in connection with my son; but they told me that once he was with his mother I could not report him missing, even though I told them that an order by the court had been breached and that the child had my surname and my name was on his birth certificate.”
He has also spoken to officials at the Ministry of Labour where the woman worked, and all he has learnt is that she was on leave.
“The system has failed miserably, because if you go to court and a judge makes an order, and that order has been breached and everyone is saying there is nothing that can be done, what is the sense of going to court?
“They should have dealt with her from the first time she breached the order. I don’t know what else to do. I have been trying to find out from people in authority what can be done, but they are saying nothing.”
Parmasad, who has two other boys, one in Barbados, the other in Trinidad, said the only memory he has of his youngest son is a small photograph of him as a baby.
“I have stopped paying child support because I want them to come and pick me up. I see now why some fathers turn their backs – because they have no say,” he charged.When the SUNDAY SUN telephoned the Labour Department and asked to speak to Parmasaud’s former girlfriend, we were informed she was no longer employed there. “We have not had any contact with her for a very long time,” said the voice at the other end. We also visited her relatives who refused to disclosed any information.Ralph Boyce, head of MESA, said he was very aware of Parmasaud’s situation.
“This is a case where a judge has given an order which a woman breaches, but there is no clear set of repercussions – and that is wrong. The system should not put stumbling blocks in people’s way. I really feel for the man,” Boyce stated.
He added that it was situations like this which MESA was agitating against.
Boyce said MESA was looking into appearing in court on behalf of its members on matters such as this, since the Community Legal Aid Department did not provide finance for such.
