united-kingdom child-support
UK-Cambodia Child support
<p>a child was born in Cambodia, to a Cambodian mother, and a British father:</p>
<p>Does the father legally have to support this child, if the child is still living in the Cambodia, and the father goes back to the UK.</p>
<p>If not, what are the exceptions? If yes ,what steps should the mother take?</p>
<p>If not, what other options/ideas are there that would help mother support the child?</p>

<ul>
<li><strong>Short Answer</strong>:</li>
</ul>
<p>The mother may have to apply to the court in <a href="/questions/tagged/cambodia" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;cambodia&#39;" rel="tag">cambodia</a> for a maintenance order, but it could be difficult to enforce.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Long Answer</strong>:</li>
</ul>
<p>It depends whether or not there is a child maintenance order in place, as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Parents cannot enforce an arrangement made informally between them, it must be made legally binding first</p>
<p>[...]</p>
<p>if no (<em>REMO, see below</em>) agreement exists then, the receiving parent would have to apply via local courts and a payment may be much harder to enforce. <a href="https://www.familylaw.co.uk/news_and_comment/do-i-have-to-pay-child-maintenance-if-my-child-lives-abroad#:%7E:text=If%20the%20paying%20parent%20works%20abroad%20for%20a%20British%20company,child%20to%20an%20EU%20country." rel="nofollow noreferrer">Source</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>If there is a child maintenance order in place, then the relevant legislation is the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1972/18/contents" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Maintenance Orders (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1972</a> ( REMO).</p>
<p>REMO has two gateways to enforce such an order: either with <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/countries-where-you-can-enforce-child-maintenance-decisions" rel="nofollow noreferrer">&quot;Reciprocal Countries&quot;</a> designated by s.1 of the Act, or with
&quot;Convention Countries&quot; scheduled in the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1975/423/schedule/made" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Recovery Abroad of Maintenance (Convention Countries) Order 1975</a></p>
<p>Unfortunately, <a href="/questions/tagged/cambodia" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged &#39;cambodia&#39;" rel="tag">cambodia</a> does not appear on either list although, oddly, it is a signatory to the <a href="https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetailsIII.aspx?src=TREATY&amp;mtdsg_no=XX-1&amp;chapter=20&amp;Temp=mtdsg3&amp;clang=_en" rel="nofollow noreferrer">1956 Convention on the Recovery Abroad of Maintenance</a> but for some reason the UK Parliament decided against its inclusion in the 1975 Order.</p>
