Category: The White House

Parental child abduction becomes a diplomatic embarrassment for Japan ahead of G-7

8/22/2019

...studies show that depriving children of access to one of their parents can be traumatic and psychologically damaging, says Noriko Odagiri, a professor of clinical psychology at Tokyo International University.

“Children feel like their father abandoned them, that he doesn’t love them anymore,” she said.

Morehouse is frustrated that President Trump has, on Abe’s insistence, advocated strongly for Japanese citizens who were abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, meeting their families and raising the issue with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but has not done so for hundreds of stranded American children.

The president “ran on a statement and policy of ‘America First,’ ” he said. “He ought to put American kidnapped children first, and bring them home from Japan and other countries.”

International Alliance Sends Letter to G7 Leaders On Japan Abductions

7/5/2019

For the second year in a row, international partners of the G7 Kidnapped to Japan Reunification Project wrote to representatives of the G7 countries in advance of the 45th G7 summit that will be held on August 24-26, 2019 in Biarritz, France. The international alliance is comprised of parents and organizations from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The immediate objective is to put the Japanese parental child abduction issue on the G7 Summit agenda and bring about a rapid resolution to this crisis affecting the human rights of thousands of children abducted to or within Japan.

Since the letter was sent on April 24, 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte have made statements to the press on the abduction crisis to and within Japan. President Macron confirmed he has raised the issue with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

‘Bring Our Children Home’: US Urged to Use All Legal Powers to Return Abductees

12/12/2018

WASHINGTON—Parents Jeffery Morehouse, Juan Garaicoa, and Michelle Littleton sat before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Dec. 10 to testify about the same terrible fate of their children—international abduction by a spouse.

“While most children were returning to school, my children were boarding a plane and being kidnapped to war-torn Lebanon,” Littleton, a mother of three, said.

“She had kidnapped our son to Japan,” said Morehouse, the founder and executive director of the non-profit Bring Abducted Children Home. “I don’t even know where he is being held.”

“Time is of the essence and now is the time to bring our children home,” pleaded Garaicoa, whose two children remain in Ecuador.

While the countries, children, and spouses are different, they share the same frustration of fighting to be reunited with their children in foreign lands.
Morehouse won custody of his children in U.S. courts—and twice in Japan—but his teenage son, Mochi, who was taken by his wife at age 6, remains in Japan with his mother because there is no enforcement mechanism under Japanese law.

“In the end, the court refused to reunite Mochi and me,” said Morehouse.”It does not matter how a child ends up with the abductor in Japan, they will not uphold laws and treaties to return children to their rightful home.”

Parents call on Congress to pressure foreign nations to return their children

12/10/2018

Jeffery Morehouse dropped his 6-year-old son off with his mother for a weeklong visit in 2010 — and she managed to abscond with him to Japan.

On Monday, Mr. Morehouse, executive director of Bring Abducted Children Home, called on Congress to step up American efforts to bring his son and other children back from overseas, saying the government’s actions are inconsistent and insufficient.

“President Trump ran on putting America first,” Mr. Morehouse said in his testimony to the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on global human rights. “Well, America first means putting American children first and bringing them home.”

Rep. Smith calls for Trump administration crackdown on international parental child abduction

12/10/2018

WASHINGTON – House Foreign Affairs subcommittee Chairman Chris Smith called on the Trump administration to take concerted action to stop international parental child abduction.

“The Trump administration can and must use current law, especially the tools embedded in the Goldman Act, to more aggressively bring American children home to their families,” Smith (R-N.J.) said at a hearing on Monday that featured testimony from parents whose children were abducted abroad.
Smith said “child abduction is child abuse.”

Smith said more than 450 American children are abducted each year. He said 11,000 children were abducted internationally between 2008 and 2017.

Panelists relayed their experiences to the committee and implored action.
“The last time I saw my son was on Father’s Day of 2010,” said Jeffery Morehouse, executive director of Bring Abducted Children Home.

That day, Morehouse said, he dropped off his then-6-year-old-son, Mochi Atomu Imoto Morehouse, with his ex-wife for a week-long visit. Three weeks later, Morehouse said, the police informed him that his wife and son had been reported missing.

“I knew immediately what happened,” Morehouse recalled. “She succeeded in what she had threatened to do. She kidnapped our son to Japan.”

Morehouse said he pursued the matter in Japanese courts and won.

Coaltion Meeting at The White House

4/6/2017

The Coalition to End International Parental Child Abduction met in The Roosevelt Room with White House staff close to the President and Ivanka Trump. "Being invited to The White House to discuss policy changes necessary with countries like Japan is an important step in making American children first and bringing them home," according to Jeffery Morehouse, Executive Director of Bring Abducted Children Home and founding partner in The Coalition.

Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on International Child Abductions

12/8/2009

Lantos Human Rights Commission calls on President Obama and Secretary Clinton to meet with left-behind parents and to address the issue of International Child Abductions.