| Press Statement Philip T. Reeker, Deputy Spokesman Washington, DC May 23, 2001 National Missing Children's DayThe Department of State takes this opportunity to acknowledge that today, May 23, is National Missing Children’s Day. This is a day that is set aside to remember and focus attention on all the children from throughout the United States whose whereabouts are unknown. These children may be runaways or may be the victims of stranger or family abduction. The Office of Children’s Issues in our Bureau of Consular Affairs has as its overriding mission the reunification of children parentally abducted overseas with their left-behind parents in the United States. Over the past four years alone, the Office of Children’s Issues has facilitated or assisted in the return of over 1,100 children to the United States. We will continue to work assiduously on the cases of those hundreds of other parentally abducted children abroad whose whereabouts remain unknown or whose return to the United States has not yet been realized. They, their parents, and everyone who has been touched by the tragic phenomenon of international parental child abduction are particularly in our minds and hearts on this day set aside to focus on their plight. |
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