An Afghan refugee family alleges a U.S. Marine abducted their baby. But U.S. Marine Corps Major Joshua Mast and his family claim in court documents that they legally adopted the child and that the Afghan couple’s accusations are “unmerited.”
that custody order as “unlawful,” “improper” and “deeply flawed and incorrect” because it was based on a promise that Afghanistan would waive jurisdiction over the child, which never happened.
Judge Moore ruled in November that the Afghan family does have legal standing; the Masts’ appeal is under review. A State Department official said one of the agency’s own social workers stood with Mast when he took the baby at Fort Pickett, but “had no awareness of the U.S. Embassy’s previous involvement in reuniting the child with her next of kin in Afghanistan.” The official described how the U.S. had worked hard in Afghanistan to unite the child with her relatives.The Department of Defense said in a statement that the decision to reunite the child with her family was in keeping with the U.S.
“It was very surprising to me that no one helped them,” said Vaughan, who offered to represent the Afghan couple for free. “I don’t think they had a lot of the paperwork Americans like to see when someone’s proving that they have custody. But there are laws about people, trusted adults, who arrive with a child. So much more investigating should have been done.”