The war in Ukraine is affecting dozens of women and children in Israel as well as in Ukraine, who have stopped receiving the alimony they are entitled to through legal aid at the Ministry of Justice.
Sometimes the legal process was frozen due to the situation.
About ten percent of the applications received each year for legal aid to collect "alimony" are for women and children in Ukraine - but from the beginning of the fighting there is real difficulty in dealing with dozens of debtors staying in Ukraine, as well as the judicial authorities there. Alimony for their children in Ukraine The reason: the current lack of communication between legal aid in Israel and the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice.
"Connection disconnected"
In one case, it was a father, an Israeli who married a Ukrainian woman and lived with her in Israel for a short time.
After their relationship did not go well, the woman returned to Ukraine when she was pregnant and gave birth to their joint son there.
After a court in Ukraine ruled alimony, legal aid was sought to help with the collection, but the father denied his paternity and because of this the parties reached an arrangement whereby if a tissue test proves that he is the father - he will pay alimony.
Refugees from Ukraine on their way to Romania, Photo: Reuters
But after examining that he was the father, he learned of an earlier ruling from Ukraine that deprived him of custody of the child, and he appealed.
His claim: It is contrary to public regulations to charge him alimony on the one hand, and deprive him of parental rights on the other.
The mother, represented by Advocate Sarah Mintos of Legal Aid, reports that she and her minor son are besieged at their home in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, The Ukrainian. "
Israel and about 60 countries around the world are bound by the New York Convention of 1956, according to which children entitled to alimony in Israel receive compulsory collection assistance that is in the signatory countries, and vice versa - Israel assists in collecting binding alimony in Israel for the benefit of children from other countries.
In the last decade, legal aid has handled about 2,400 applications for alimony collection abroad, and today about 350 applications are in various stages of processing in Israel and abroad.
About 30 of them are applications related to Ukraine.
Since 2010, legal aid has been able to collect more than $ 4.5 million in alimony paid to families and children.
This year it is estimated with legal aid that if the fighting continues, "it will be difficult to impossible to collect or transfer the funds for those children who are begging for money."
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