A New Jersey adult survivor of international child abduction shared heartbreaking testimony of her immense tribulations growing up in a foreign land and her long and difficult journey to return to the United States at a congressional hearing chaired by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) today.

            Born in Newark, Nafeesah Ali Ismail was only seven years old when she was abducted by her father to a small village in Northern Egypt, where everything was foreign to her.

            “I was only seven, and I didn’t really understand that when I left New Jersey, I was leaving my family, my language, and all that I had known in my young life,” Ali Ismail testified.

            “My expectation as a child was that everything was going to be okay because I was with my dad,” she continued. “But it was not okay, at all. I was a seven-year-old American in an Egyptian village surrounded by people who did not want to understand me; people who saw and treated me as ‘less than’ simply because I did not have the same skin color and hair texture.”

            “When I wasn’t in school, I mainly stayed in my room—imagining someone from the United States government would knock on the door and ask for me,” she shared. “I know other survivors like me also had this silly dream. I became depressed, lost hope that I would return to the United States, and attempted suicide multiple times.” 

            Back home, Nafeesah’s mother appealed to the U.S. State Department to bring her back, but to no avail.

            “The heartbreaking reality is that hundreds of American children are still abducted every year—illegally kidnapped by one of their parents to a foreign land,” said Rep. Smith. “They are subjected to what amounts to a form of child abuse—with devastating psychological and even physical consequences for them and their families left behind.”

            Smith’s hearing, which marked the 10-year anniversary of his Sean and David Goldman International Child Abduction Act, examined the U.S. State Department’s implementation of the groundbreaking law since its enactment in 2014. It featured testimony from top officials at the State Department, including Michelle Bernier-Toth, the Special Advisor for Children’s Issues; and Robert Koepcke, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Japan, Korea, and Mongolia.

            “The Goldman Act empowers the State Department to use the full range of diplomatic tools to seek the return of abducted American children—from a demarche or public condemnation to delay or cancellation of a bilateral visits or an extradition request,” Smith said. “Annual appropriations language also authorizes the Department to withhold bilateral assistance funds for the governments of countries that are not taking appropriate steps to comply on child abduction issues.”

            “Yet the State Department consistently fails to apply these Goldman tools,” said Smith. “In 10 years, it has only ever used an action that exceeded a demarche once—even as many countries still do not comply with their treaty obligations under the Hague Convention.”

            Also testifying at Smith’s hearing was Jeffery Morehouse, the founder of Bring Abducted Children Home, who shared his own experience as a left-behind parent: “Over the past 14 years of advocacy for others and in my own personal efforts to locate and reunite with my kidnapped son, ‘Mochi’ Atomu Imoto Morehouse, I have been told when our children are adults, they will be free to contact their seeking parent. I understand those in the general public and government are trying to offer kind words of support. These are naive words that dismiss the opportunity to engage and do more for the 30,000 U.S. children kidnapped to a foreign country since 1994.”

            “We can and must do more to work to bring our abducted children home,” said Smith, who introduced new legislation earlier this year to strengthen key aspects of the Goldman Act by requiring additional data and increased transparency from the State Department and providing critical funding for research into the lifelong trauma caused by international parental abduction.

            “In a sense, I rescued myself from abduction, with the help of others,” said Ali Ismail, who finally returned home three years ago with the help of advocates like Dr. Noelle Hunter from the iStand Survivor Network. “Now, I want to help rescue other abducted children and help them have the soft landing and long-term reunification support that they need when they come home.”

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