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Mum seeks MP's help to be with her children
A HEARTBROKEN mother who may have to return to Eastbourne from Bali without her two children has enlisted the help of Eastbourne MP Nigel Waterson.
Sara Oxley, 39, is locked in a complex legal dispute with the children's father and must return to the family's home in Eastbourne on Monday because her visa runs out.
Sara says Wallis, eight, and Reuven, six, have new British passports but she has been told by a court and the Indonesian government that she can only leave Bali with the children if her ex-husband, William Furney, hands over their original Irish passports and agrees to exit permits.
She says Irishman Mr Furney, the managing editor of the Bali Times newspaper, is refusing to comply with the order from the Supreme Court of Indonesia.
But Mr Furney claims he will not release the passports because of a UK High Court order.
He has also told the Herald he is concerned about the children leaving Bali with their new British passports and will try to stop this happening.
He said, "A pertinent point of the UK High Court order is that both parties undertake not to remove the children from the care and control of the other pending the final outcome of the proceedings in Indonesia.
"There has not yet been a final outcome of the proceedings here and therefore Sara is wrong to try to take the children away and to refuse me access to them.
"If she did manage to return to England with my children, I am ready to take action to have the High Court order enforced – and that means an immediate return of the children to Bali."
Mike Oxley, Sara's dad who lives in Eastbourne, said the UK High Court order has been superseded by the Supreme Court of Indonesia, which awarded full and sole custody to Sara.
The Oxley family are now facing the devastating prospect of the two youngsters being left in Bali and are in the middle of a wrangle involving Indonesian immigration officers, the Indonesian government and the British Embassy.
Eastbourne MP Nigel Waterson said, "On hearing the plight of Sara, I have immediately been in contact with both ministers at the Foreign Office and Home Office to ask them to bring pressure to bear, either through our own embassy or directly with the Indonesian government.
"I hope we will have Sara and her children back in Eastbourne very soon."
Mike Oxley added, "They are British citizens being held over there against their will and they want to come back to England - it's not right, just let them come home.
"Particularly galling to me is being told that our government is working as hard as possible to get back to Britain, people who have committed crimes abroad and have been punished accordingly.
"Sara, law abiding, hard working and an honest and devoted mum is left to cope alone and will, within a few days have to leave her children behind in Indonesia.
"I dread having to meet her, without her children, at Heathrow, whatever can I say to her?"
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Weather for Eastbourne
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
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Temperature: 0 C to 3 C
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Wind direction: South east
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