Two Individuals Who Failed to Pay Child Support Face First Travel Ban Measures

First Travel Ban After July Child Support Amendment
Opportunity to Present Opinion Provided but No Opinion Given
Reviewing Easing Requirements Due to High Debt Amount Threshold

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] For the first time, a travel ban has been imposed on two debtors who failed to comply with child support payment orders despite receiving detention orders.

On the 11th, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced that it held the 20th Child Support Enforcement Deliberation Committee on the 5th and decided to impose a travel ban on the two debtors as of the 11th.

This is the first travel ban since the amendment to the Child Support Enforcement Act came into effect on July 13. The two debtors who were banned from traveling abroad received detention orders from the court after July 13 but have not paid child support to date.

The debt amount for debtor Kim, who is subject to the travel ban, is 117.2 million KRW, and for debtor Hong, it is 125.6 million KRW. After receiving the travel ban request from the creditor, the procedure was immediately initiated, and a 10-day opportunity to present opinions was granted, during which no objections were raised.

Additionally, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family plans to analyze the status of child support debts and compliance to consider easing the debt amount requirements. Currently, the criteria for travel bans apply to debts of 50 million KRW or more, or debts of 30 million KRW or more with three or more overseas departures in the past year.

Under the amended Child Support Act, if a debtor fails to pay child support despite receiving a detention order, measures such as license suspension, travel bans, and public disclosure of names are permitted. Public disclosure, license suspension, and travel bans apply only to cases of non-compliance after the enforcement of the detention order and require deliberation and resolution by the Child Support Enforcement Deliberation Committee.

The Ministry stated, "Regarding criticisms that the criteria for travel bans are too strict, while there are cases with significantly high debt amounts like this one, there is also a recognized need to ease the child support debt amount requirements to enhance the system's effectiveness. We plan to actively review this after analyzing debt and compliance status."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.