State Department sends kidnapped child back to kidnapper

[cm]

After a bit of shuffling and political rhetoric, an official discussed the situation with young Mary. It seems the US Government didn’t have the $500.00 to buy Mary a one way ticket home, so instead they gave her bus fare and told her to return to her abductor. Mary’s chance to fix the wrongs that had been done to her years prior were foiled, by her own Government.

Her own government didn't want to 'get involved'. They turned away a citizen requesting assistance with a lame excuse and a bus ticket? Sickening.

[Andrew]

The State Department Office of Children's Issues are run by idiots.  When they conducted a Welfare and Whereabouts check on my children in Singapore 2009, they told the kidnapper parent what I was doing to get the children back.  Updating the kidnapping parent is NOT the objective of a Welfare and Whereabouts Check.

Then OCI tells me they will only conduct WW checks upon my written request.  I did not request one and they conducted one in Aug 2010.  Then all the excuses come out.  How they don't need me to request a check, how OCI is required to conduct one every 3 months, etc. They even had their Legal Counsel Corrin Ferber write me to explain.

The Inspector General of the State Dept needs to conduct an investigation on how OCI is run.

[Andrew]

pptoland is RIGHT.  The State Dept puts foreign relations first.  So much for taking care of our children.  My twin boys were kidnapped to Singapore in Aug 2009.  There is a 79 year old extradition treaty between the UK-Singapore-US. It absolutely allows for the extradition of a criminal for "child stealing" and "kidnapping."  There is also a Vienna Convention called "Law of Treaties" which DOES NOT allow a signatory to a treaty to "re-interpret" the terms of the treaty without having it put in writing and all parties to the treaty accept the change.

But the State Department lacky in Manila said the Singapore Attorney General officials (un-named) said Singapore does not "interpret" the treaty to include PARENTAL "child stealing" or PARENTAL child abduction.  The 79 year old treaty did not have any exceptions or exclusions stating parental child abduction is not a part of child stealing.  In fact, no where in the treaty does it say who has to commit the crime before extradition is allowed.

The Department of Justice is not much better.  An Interpol Red Notice for the arrest of the mother was issued in November 2009.  Singapore's ex Police Commissioner Khoo Boon Hwee is the President of Interpol at the time and will not enforce the Red Notice.  The mother was free to hide out in Singapore for 18 months.

We have "Lifestyle" Politicians and Government Officials.  They will not do anything to help an American citizen because it is too much work for them. They enjoy the benefits of their position but if you need them to press an issue with a foreign government, they will run and hide. 

[jenicoy]

Saw this on Facebook.  Very happy for Father and Daughter.
 
After 6.5 years, Mary Victoria Lake is finally heading home to her father!

Abducted by her mother to an unknown location in August 2005, Mary was located in Japan in 2008. Even though neither Mary nor her mother are Japanese, the Japanese government refused to assist in Mary's return to her home country.

In August 2011, 14-year-old Mary made her way to the US Consulate in Osaka, Japan, and asked to be rescued from her kidnapper. Shockingly, consulate officials refused and... instead returned her to her kidnapper. Mary's father, William, was not notified of his daughter's effort to return home until after she had been returned to her kidnapper.

Earlier this year, Mary located her father and contacted him directly. Today, Mary is returning home to Florida. This evening, she and her father will be reunited on US soil for the first time in 6.5 years.

Please join all of us at BSHF in congratulating William and Mary on their long overdue reunion and please continue to keep in your thoughts and prayers the hundreds of other American parents whose abducted children continue to be held in Japan.

[pptoland]

Here is the link to the press release.  More information will be coming soon.  For now let's celebrate this day!    http://www.bachome.org/wordpress/2012/03/breaking-news-abducted-teen-mary-lake-returns-from-japan/
 

[rduffiel]

Great news!  Welcome home.

[ANALE]

Am so very happy for them and the whole family who I am sure were also suffering.

[Diane]

So very happy to see this great news.   Way to long coming and I hope the beginning of many more successful returns from Japan and elsewhere.