The return of the Ko twins after 18 months is hard on them, hard on Andrew and hard on their mother who is remaining in Singapore (and 'yes' I know she is the kidnapper). But this is normal in many instances and will pass fairly quickly. It is the long term affects on the children, which will come to develop as they get older, that highlights the truly abusive nature of international child kidnapping.
My feelings of sympathy for mom are curtailed. She has thoroughly manipulated and alienated the Ko twins, William and Christopher. In addition, she has thoroughly manipulated the legal systems of both the US and Singapore, and it hasn't stopped right up to this very moment. All to simply stop the children from having any relationship with their dad.
Mother was ordered to either (a) send the twins home by today, or (b) the father could recover them.
What follows is typical of some of the skullduggery perpetrated by international child abductors, and remember this is just the tip of an 18 month iceberg. This is in Andrew Ko's own words:
Hi All,
We checked-in and are waiting at the airline lounge for our flight out of Singapore in about 3 hours. This morning was touch and go. The mother did not deliver the boys on Monday 10AM as requested. I spent the day going between the police to make a report , my lawyer's and talking with the US Embassy officer. The US Embassy faxed a letter to the Judge who ordered the children returned and the Singapore Police highlighting the fact that the mother breached the order by not producing the airline tickets until well past the deadline set by the judge. I got a call around 7PM from a police officer who advised me to take the Police Report and the Court Order to the High Court to get further directions. When I was making the police report, I was told that "you are wanted" by the police. But I wasn't stopped at immigration so it was not a serious matter. I had to go to another police station and was told that the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority who is responsible for issuing birth certificates said I might have "falsified information" on the birth certificate, i.e. claiming I was the father of the boys when I was not. I told them I am the father PERIOD. I asked the investigator why it took ICA 9 years (Dec 2009) to ask this question when the birth certificate was issued in March 2000 when the children were born. He laughed. Just increditble. The mother's lawyer notified my lawyer that she wants an extra day and will deliver the boys at the Singapore Airlines check-in counter at 7.30AM on Tues. My main concern is she would put them on the flight as unaccompanied minors without me. Then last night I noticed that the mother provided copies of tickets for the boys on March 10 (they were due on Mar7) but the tickets were one way tickets. I immediately went to travel.state.govand sure enough you cannot enter the US with a one-way ticket using a foreign passport. The mother had fraudulently applied for Singapore passports for the boys (that is how they were able to leave in Aug 2009). I communicated this to the US Embassy officer and she had included this in the letter to the judge. The 1952 US Immigration Act Section 215b states it is unlawful for a US citizen to attempt to depart or enter the US without a valid US passport. The mother already broke that law when she abducted the boys with Singapore passports. I went to the airport at 6.30AM with my lawyer Mr. Teo. We explained the situation to the airline supervisor. He said they are travelling with US passports. I started to sweat. I called Consular Officer Rachel Sunden and she immediately called Washington and was able to confirm the boys DO NOT have valid US passports. We guess the mother provided a fake passport number so that she would buy one-way tickets to the US. Rachel found out later that the mother was advised by her US lawyer Cynthia De Petris that it is ok for the boys to enter the US with Singapore passports. This is against the law Cynthia! You should stick to Family Law and not immigration law. The airline did not and cannot check the boys in. It took about 45 min. to convince the family that the Court Order did not allow for the boys to travel alone. The mother has the option to accompany them but if she did not board the flight, I can retrieve the boys immediately. Mr. Teo and Rachel were able to talk the family into allowing the boys to go to the US Embassy to get passports accompanied by their Aunt and cousin. On the way out of the airport I said "hello boys" and one of them replied "shut up asshole." It is going to be a long road to normal. This family in Singapore really did a good job in ruining 2 perfectly good boys. We got to the Embassy and in about an hour got our emergency passports. Then we headed to the therapist. We offered the Aunt to accompany them and then to say her goodbyes. The boys were very angry at the therapist. They said they didn't love me, asked me to leave them alone and threw tissue at me plus kick a table towards me. The therapists Dorothy and Teresa were great and worke with them. Then the Aunt refused to leave. I explained to Dorothy that the longer the Aunt stays, the harder it is for the boys to accept that they are going back home. So after some explaining, the Aunt and cousin left. We were trying to be nice by offering the Aunt to accompany the boys to the Therapist and she wouldn't leave! Since the boys were acting up, I called my friend Phang and asked him to come pick us up and also asked a dear friend Vanessa to come and help. Vaness is the one who put up the posters of the mother and boys and was called into the police station. She is a real trooper. At 1PM we left and headed to the hotel to checkout. Another great friend Priscilla arranged for a large van and extended our checkout time at the hotel. Finally around 3PM we arrived at the airport and checked in. We had one more hurdle. That is leaving with new US passports when the boys entered with Singapore passports. It took a few minutes to explain and we are now sitting in the lounge. If all goes well, we will arrive at 915PM on Tues at LAX on Cathay Pacific flight 880 from Hong Kong. The journey for the boys is now starting. We will need your prayers, suggestions (which sometimes I might not listen to), and lots of love to get the boys back to the way they were. Thank you all for your help and support.
AndrewFor Andrew, William and Christopher, there is going to be a new beginning which will start at around 9am PST (midday EST), but no-one should be under any illusions about how difficult it is going to be. There will be some who will say (inevitably) why didn't the boys simply get left with mom rather than going through this upheaval.
My response to this is simple - listen to the adult victims of international child abduction and what they have to say about this heinous crime:
Sam's Story
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