Romanian President: Country’s Adoption Law Will Not Change During My Term

Romanian President Traian Basescu said Thursday in Brussels that the country’s law on adoptions will not change, “at least” not during his term, regardless of the lobby in favor of change made “in Brussels and elsewhere.”

A petition for the reopening of international adoptions in Romania was dismissed on March 23 on the request of Romanian MEP Victor Bostinaru, unanimously backed by the European Parliament's Petition Committee.

Bostinaru argued at the time that, before accession, the European Union itself requested that Romania ban international adoptions and the move was welcomed by the European Parliament and European Commission. He added that any attempt to put this topic back on the agenda of EU institutions, or to pressure Romania must be speedily and firmly rebutted.

Source: MEDIAFAX



See also the previous posting:

The Adoption Lobby: Report from Brussels

Samoa's stolen children

Adoption Scam? I would rather call it Adoption Crime.

And as long as such crimes go unpunished, and the biggest risk is losing the adoption licence, these crimes will continue over and over again.

Focus on Children scam: No jail time in adoption-fraud case
In a plea deal, four defendants get probation and are banned for life from the business.

CBS News will present, "The Lost Children," a "48 Hours" special, on Saturday, Dec. 12 at 10 p.m. ET/PT - the culmination of a two-year investigation by "48 Hours" into one of the largest foreign adoption scams in U.S. history.

THE LOST CHILDREN



Watch CBS News Videos Online

Korean Adoptions: "A Game of Living Ghosts"

TRACK

Safe Haven Bill, New Brunswick, Canada

I gladly pass on this call to action:

Call To Action
Government Of New Brunswick, Canada
Bill 60 - An Act to Amend the Family Services Act
[Safe Haven Bill]



The new proposed safe haven bill is a dangerous leap in the wrong direction for Canada’s child welfare system and most importantly for the rights of the child. At a time when the emphasis of global recognition is directed towards placing more safeguards for children and respect for the preservation of identity, the New Brunswick government is taking into consideration Bill 60 which would actually allow for safe havens to become part of New Brunswick’s system of Family Services.

Safe Haven’s have been introduced in the United States after lobbying efforts were successful. The rush to establish Safe Haven systems in the U.S. has allowed an opportunity for Canada to learn from the consequences of such “anonymous abandonment” systems. The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute released a detailed study in 2003 regarding the effects of the Safe Haven laws: “Unintended Consequences: ‘Safe Haven’ Laws are Causing Problems, Not Solving Them”. This study concluded that indeed the unintended consequences of the Safe Haven laws created addition problems without addressing the underlying issues that contribute to child abandonment. Below are just a few examples of the many negative consequences of Safe Haven systems.

 Safe Haven laws contribute to additional anonymous abandonment’s and do little to prevent unnecessary relinquishments.
 Safe Haven systems do nothing to preserve the rights of the child in respect to identity and biological history.
 The First Nations Adoption Act cannot be adequately respected under Safe Haven systems due to the lack of information on ethnic identity.
 Safe Haven systems dismiss the paternal rights.
 Safeguards against child trafficking will not properly be upheld if Safe Haven systems are allowed into Canadian laws.
 Minimal support is given to parents and little time is offered to ensure that the decision to surrender is fully done in the proper frame of mind and with the best interest of the child at heart.

As a community that has been touched by adoption on multiple levels, we reach out to the New Brunswick Government and respectfully request that the proposed ‘Bill 60- An Act To Amend Family Services Act’ is not instated. It is important that all provinces within Canada recognize the growing trend of child trafficking for adoption and the coercive methods used by the adoption industry to procure children. It is important that the Canadian government takes the firm approach necessary to put in place all safeguards possible to ensure that the children who are relinquished are done so under voluntary measures and are free from undue pressure and corruption. Counselling and adequate time should be offered to any parent who chooses to surrender their child. Proper identity of the parents and all necessary procedures to preserve the identity of the child must be taken.

In the year 2009, it is no longer considered acceptable to allow for anonymous abandonment’s of children. We now know that this method is not only harmful to the child, but also to the parents and the community as a whole. Preservation of identity and laws are more important now than ever before.

It is our hope that the New Brunswick Government will take into consideration the moral and legal dilemmas associated with Safe Haven laws and work to properly establish more support and education systems geared towards preventing infant abandonment. Ideally with a well-structured system that includes multiple safeguards, the best interests of the child and parents will continue to be a priority. Allowing Safe Haven laws to become part of Canada’s system of family services would be a shameful step in the wrong direction.

Sincerely,


Proposed Bill was introduced by Jody Carr -- Progressive Conservative member from Oromocto
Please write to each member of the New Brunswick Government below:

JODY CARR (PC)
Email: Jody.CARR@gnb.ca
Phone: (506) 453-7494
Fax: (506) 453-3461
Mailing Address
Old Education Building, East Block
P. O. Box 6000
Fredericton, NB
E3B 5H1

David Alward
Leader of the Official Opposition
General Information: (506) 444-2324
Reception: (506) 444-2324
Fax: (506) 453-3461
Email: david.alward@gnb.ca
Mailing Address
Old Education Building, East Block
P. O. Box 6000
Fredericton, NB
E3B 5H1

Social Development Minister Mary Schryer
HON. MARY SCHRYER (L), MLA
Quispamsis, Electoral District 30 / Legislative Assembly
Phone: (506) 457-7866
Fax: (506) 453-2164
EMail Address: mary.schryer@gnb.ca
Mailing Address
Sartain MacDonald Building
P. O. Box 6000
Fredericton, NB
E3B 5H1

HON. SHAWN GRAHAM, Premier
Contact Information
Phone: (506) 453-2144
Fax: (506) 453-7407
EMail Address: Shawn.Graham@gnb.ca
Mailing Address
Centennial Building
P. O. Box 6000
Fredericton, NB
E3B 5H1

Why Bulgaria should learn from Malawi when it gets to children's rights

I strongly recommend the following article to anyone interested in children's rights and intercountry adoption. It analyses in an excellent way why Bulgaria should learn from Malawi: that it is the State's obligation to look after children, and not to expatriate them.

Madonna’s failed adoption attempt shows Bulgaria has a lot to learn from Malawi about upholding children’s rights

In 2009 - two years after having become a member of the European Union and thus fullfilling the EU human rights criteria - Bulgaria has decided to go back to their old practice: intercountry adoption as child protection.

Here a quote from the article about an intercountry adoption conference recently held in Bulgaria:

Five years later things seem to be going back to where they were before the ratification of the Hague convention and before the European Commission’s criticisms. On 19 March an international conference on intercountry adoptions took place in Sofia, Bulgaria. The conference was co-organised by the Ministry of Justice and the Association of accredited intercountry adoption agencies. There was very little information about the event, but apparently, children’s rights organisations were not present (and I am not even sure if the State Agency for Child Protection had any representatives - there was nothing about this conference on its website, which definitely means that none of its senior representatives has taken part in it). This must have left the field clear for the right type of discussion - unburdened by paraphernalia like children’s rights, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, or Bulgaria’s own Child Protection Act.

‘Brilliant’ results were reported at the conference - the number of intercountry adoptions is going up again. The information about the conference published by the English language weekly Sofia Echo shows a steep upward trend: “Compared to 2007 when there were 81 approvals from the Justice Minister for children’s adoptions, in 2008 there were 169.”** (By the way, the author of the article explains the official legislative position in Bulgaria that intercountry adoption should be a measure of last resort as a ‘patriotic concept’! If he ever bothers to read a relevant document on the rights of the child, he will be surprised to find out that international law in this area is premised on the same ‘patriotic concept’).

I also had been looking for information about that conference, and indeed it could not be found on the Bulgarian State Agency for Child Protection's website:

However, information on the conference was only available on the website of VESTA, where it is said that Bulgaria is 'Defrosting after ice age' (Bulgarian adoptions were as good as closed the last four years).

VESTA is the partner of one the biggest US agencies: HOLT International Children Services. They also facilitate All God's Children International, Three of Life and Gladney.

On Holt's Blog, in October 2008, the following can be read:

Wharfield and Smith also met with Bulgaria’s Deputy Minister of Justice. The attorney and CEO of Holt’s Bulgarian partner agency, Vesta, is currently working with the Ministry of Justice to draft a new family code that will amend the law favorably for adoption practices, including children with special needs.

So, here we have a US Adoption Agency working on the new family code in Bulgaria!

BULGARIA's CHILDREN: FOR EXPORT ONLY

Country Fee HOLT:

Depending on the country, fees for adopting healthy or minor special needs children are as follows:

Bulgaria $16,000
China $11,360
Ethiopia $9,690*
Haiti
$8,690
India $9,190*
Korea $17,215
Nepal $12,000
Philippines $9,890
Thailand $9,190*
Vietnam $10,325

Adoption from Samoa - lost children

The US adoption agency Focus on Children misled Samoan families, and had their children adopted for the price of 13.000 US dollars each.

Is that a crime? Is that child trafficking?

Not so, according the the US judge who had mercy and gave no prison time:

Prosecutors accused the five of conspiring to arrange adoptions that violated U.S. immigration laws, and alleged the scheme included lying to Samoan birth parents and American adoptive parents. As part of a plea bargain with the U.S. Attorney's Office, all five pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the illegal entry of an alien, a misdemeanor.
Dozens of felony charges against them were dropped, and prosecutors recommended probation. Wakefield is expected to get the same sentence as the others.
...
U.S. District Judge David Sam instead sentenced the four to five years of probation and ordered them to contribute to a trust fund to help adopted children stay in touch with their birth families. He also ordered the defendants to never engage in the adoption business again.

INSIDE STORY OF AN ADOPTION SCANDAL

With courtesy to United Adoptees International:

NEW PAPER PUBLISHED:

Samford University Cumberland School of Law

INSIDE STORY OF AN ADOPTION SCANDAL

- CUMBERLAND LAW REVIEW - Vol. 39:1 -

BY ARUN DOHLE - Aachen - Germany -

Introduction

In historical terms, intercountry adoptions from India havehad a short run. Within thirty years of its inception, murky scandals of child kidnapping, falsifying paperwork, outright trading, and other tragic stories have ridden these intercountry adoptions. Worldwide, adoption experts widely believed that ratifying the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (1993) would help reduce malpractice in such adoptions. The Convention aims to minimize malpractice in adoption and "prevent the abduction, the sale of, or trafficking in children." But does regulating help in weeding outcases of malpractice? Or does the regulation of intercountry adoptions, because of the strong demand for children, lead to a legalized market for children without effective control? Dutch anthropologist Pien Bos studied the relinquishment process of unmarried mothers in India and came to the startling conclusion that the formal controls in intercountry adoptions are counter-productive:


"I am convinced that these Conventions, Regulations and Guidelinesare not appropriate instruments because they do not address the main concerns. . . . Instead of taking away threats, it takes away transparency and causes a mystification of reality. The more adoption is regulated and monitored, the more politically correct objectives get distanced from daily practices.... The transparency of surrender and adoption procedures is obscured by the taboo on the financial component of adoption."

Generally, receiving countries do not know the details of the scandals taking place in sending countries. The aim of this article is to give the reader an inside view of an adoption scandal and to explain how the system deals with the scandal. Therefore, I will often quote directly from documents gathered from journalists, as well as from High Court proceedings. In order to enable the reader to understand the violations, I will give a short overview of the Indian adoption system and regulations. This article illustrates the scandal surrounding the Indian agency Preet Mandir, as it is the agency that has weathered the most corruption and baby-trade scandals and is reputed to have immense clout with the Indian Government. Consequently, the organization's operations have continued nearly unhampered. Preet Mandir placed 518 children up for adoption during the period from 2004 to 2006, accounting for five percent of all the adoptions carried out by agencies registered with the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA). Of these 518 adoptions, Preet Mandir placed 358 children abroad, representing 13 percent of all Indian intercountry adoptions within this period.9 Preet Mandir works with all major receiving countries, many of whom also ratified the Hague Convention.

Complete article can be requested at UAI Research & Development uai.hwestra@gmail.com

http://uai-news.blogspot.com

Austria stops adoptions from Ethopia

Over the last years Ethiopia has become one of the biggest sending countries. This is mainly the result of the closure of Romania, Guatemala, Cambodia and others that closed their doors due to corruption.

Sadly, but understandably as it is inherent to today's adoption system, Ethopia seems to encounter the same problem: fake documents, children leave the country that are no 'orphans'.

But worst of all, a child protection system is building up that fully depends of the money coming from intercountry adoptions (in cash or in project aid).

Those who read Romania, For Export Only, will know that The Hague Convention will not fix that...

Unofficial translation; original article can be read HERE:

Stop for adoption
24.1.2009

International Adoption: With mediations from Ethiopia forged documents were in the game - the TT reported. Now, adoptions have been stopped from this country.

INNSBRUCK - After two cases in Lower Austria, where children who were supposed to be orphans were mediated for adoptions, adoptions from Ethiopia to Austria have now been stopped. Those who adopt children from countries that are not able to ensure serious regulations, "have no guarantee that everything is lawful," says Marion Zeillinger of the association "Parents for Children", that offers information about the adoption, adoption courses, but does not mediate . In the past two years alone, 25 children were mediated from Ethiopia to Tirol - through the agencies “Family For You"(FFY) and "Bridge to Ethiopia”. "The freeze will be maintained for sure, until all outstanding issues are clarified. Many families have already researched, "said Zeillinger. Even when FFY “built up a lot", they have been too naive. There should have been more control, but at this distance that is difficult, "says Zeillinger. Therefore, parents who want to be sure, "should only adopt children from countries which have signed the Hague Convention."

Child Trafficking

And: "In countries with a lot of corruption, adoption can quickly become child trafficking. Imagine, in a country where in orphanages 80 percent are boys and 20 percent girls. If you want to have a girl, the home will try to find one - by all means, because the financing of the home is usually depending from it. "Around half of the foreign adoptions, according to Zeillinger, is illegal," but possible - with tricks that I do not want to mention in the Media. "The new Justice Minister Claudia Bandion-Ortner has already initiated a new international adoption law - a draft is available.

Further background CLICK HERE

Further Background in German: CLICK HERE

Swedish Adoptees Speak Out Against Child Trafficking

Informal translation of yesterday's article in Aftonbladet.

Adoption may be child trafficking

12 foreign adoptees: Western needs should not allow human trafficking.

We support the Social Ministry's decision not to extend adoption agreement with Vietnam.

We want to protest against the Western-centric perspective that dominates the international adoption business, and defend our and all other adoptees right not to have to live with the suspicion that irregularities were committed in terms of our own adoptions, such as excessive commonly forged documents, false identities and invented stories, are writing 12 foreign adoptees.

The international adoption business since the turn of the millennium not only exploded in scale with the now nearly 40 000 adoptions per year, but was also shaken by a variety of reports on irregularities. Never before were so many children from the Third World adopted to the West, but at the same time, the business has never before involved so many corruption scandals than just in the 2000s.

Due to the falling birth rate in the West and growing prosperity in many countries in the Third Worldm international adoption is today facing an unprecedented situation: There are now more childless adults in the West who want to adopt, than there are adoptable children in the Third World. Then increasing sums of money in circulation have tagged this delicate situation for activities that increasingly are spiraling out in pure human trafficking.

Therefore, the adoption scandals were repeatedly documented over the recent years in leading countries such as China, Vietnam, India, Nepal, Ethiopia, Brazil, Paraguay and Guatemala. This has led many beneficiary countries such as Germany, England, Canada, Holland and Australia to terminate its adoption agreement with the most
corruption-stricken countries of origin.

In Sweden, which is the country in the world that proportionately adopted far the largest number of foreign-born children, have adoption organisations, however, chosen to ignore the destructive developments by expanding its operations into new countries that are notorious for child trafficking, and by continuing to adopt from such countries with the argument that the Swedes have a higher morale than other
Westerners. In 2002, for example Adoptionscenter got authorisation of the State Agency for International Adoption Affairs to adopt from Cambodia, despite reporting
about trafficking and the U.S. that stopped adoptions from the country.
The authorization was later lifted after the Swedish Embassy in Cambodia protested against this with reference to the extensive trafficking in the country.

Now this pattern was recently repeated by Social Affairs that decided not to extend the adoption agreement with Vietnam with reference to the presence of child trafficking, and that the country is not to enter the Hague Convention on Protection of Children in International adoptions. This convention back in 1993 meant to curb an increasingly uncontrollable adoption industry, but still Sweden has a number of
Swedish adoption agencies engaged in activities in countries of origin, including Korea, Thailand and Colombia, that not signed the Convention.

We wish to express our support for the Social Ministry's decision not to extend the adoption agreement with Vietnam. Western needs to receive adopted children should not steer the international adoption industry, thus risking that trade in human beings gets legitimized and legalized.

As foreign adoptees, we want to protest against the Western-centric perspective that today dominates the international adoption affairs, and assert our and all other adopted children's right not to have to live with the suspicion that irregularities occurred in terms of our own adoptions, as they are unfortunately too common,
with forged documents, false identities and fake histories, which is a consequence of the adult needs and profit-making governing the international adoption business.

Today's debaters
Daniel Cidrelius, socialantropolog and adopted from Sri Lanka
Gitte Enander, jur. Lawyer. and adopted from Korea
Charlotta Göthlin, Information and adopted from Korea
Daniel Hansson, jur. Stud. and adopted from the Dominican Republic
Linda Place, PhD, and adopted from Korea
Mikael Jarnlo, social and adopted from Ethiopia
Fatima Jonsson, PhD, and adopted from Korea
Patrik Lundberg, a journalist and adopted from Korea
Danjel Nam, a journalist and adopted from Korea
Helena Nilsson, behaviorist and adopted from Korea
Matilda Sjödell, teachers and adopted from Korea
Malena Swanson, jur. Lawyer. and adopted from Korea

Adoption under Fire

Justitiele Verkenning (Judicial Explorations) is published eight times per year by the Research and Documentation Centre of the Dutch Ministry of Justice. The central theme of this month's issue is: ADOPTION UNDER FIRE.

Articles:

Adoption and prosperity; an analysis of the demand and supply of adoptive
children, B.M.J. Slot

The perverse effects of the Hague Adoption Convention, R. Post

The development of intercountry adoptees; a research survey, F. Juffer

Alternatives for (intercountry) adoption, P. Vlaardingerbroek

The adoption practice: is it in the obvious best interest of the child? A.P. van der Linden

The full Dutch text, as well as an English summary can be found by clicking HERE

The Adoption Business Explained: The Stork Market

There are people who, after reading my book, are left puzzled... By the intrigues, by the pressure, by all that surrounds intercountry adoptions.

To those interested in learning more about the issue I sincerely recommend Mirah Riben's book 'THE STORK MARKET':

Adoption Today Magazine Review by Denise Roeslle
Adoption Today Oct/Nov 2008(pages 58-59).

“The Stork Market: America’s multi-billion dollar unregulated adoption industry,” Mirah Riben, Advocate Publications, 2007

The Stork Market is not an easy read, whatever your perspective on adoption. Chances are you will squirm, gasp and shake your head in disbelief (as I did). Then, you will likely come to realize that this book is an important addition to the body of adoption literature — in fact, a must-read for every mother who is considering surrendering a child, every couple seeking to adopt, and every adoption professional and legislator in the United States.

You won’t find a more straightforward account of the adoption industry as it exists today. Concise, well researched and documented, The Stork Market offers a comprehensive history of current adoption practices, including the lack of regulations (no requirements for training, licensing and reporting) for agencies and facilitators in 47 of our 50 states, transgressions committed against both natural mothers and adopting parents (including recognizable names like Georgia Tann and Seymour Kurtz), varying international adoption policies, trends toward rushing mothers into the decision to surrender, unenforceable open adoption agreements, safe havens, foster care, and sealed records.

Mirah Riben’s conclusion (a view shared by Origins-USA, on whose board of directors she serves) is that family preservation is the answer — with kinship adoption and legal guardianship as viable alternatives to adoption by strangers, the end to amended birth certificates, enforcement of open adoption agreements, and a greater focus on finding families for older children in foster care.

“It is far easier for the general public to identify and empathize with the plight of someone who desires to be a parent and cannot, than with expectant mothers needing support,” Riben writes. Many in the media “lament the ‘shame’ of the lack of ‘adoptable’ babies, and describe painfully desperate attempts to adopt and ‘deserving’ couples being forced to endure long waiting periods, traveling overseas and/or paying exorbitant fees, and being victimized by scammers. What is overlooked is that the intended purpose of adoption is not to fix infertility but to find homes for children whose families cannot raise them.”

After reading The Stork Market, I believe family preservation is an aim worthy of our consideration and effort. At the very least, major reforms are in order. Riben (along with Evelyn Robinson, a social worker, author and speaker on the long-term outcomes of adoption separation, who has lived and worked in Australia since 1982 and wrote the book’s foreword) cites Australia’s Children’s Protection Act of 1993, an adoption alternative model based on the best interests of children that might well provide a road map for changes here in America. The act makes private adoption illegal, bans commercial adoption agencies and payments of any kind connected to adoptions, encourages and supports expectant mothers in raising their children, requires counseling after birth at least three days prior to consent for adoption, prohibits consent for adoption until the child is at least fourteen days old, and includes the names of both the natural and adoptive parents on the birth/adoption certificate.

Change of this magnitude takes years. In the meantime, The Stork Market provides vital information on mothers’ and fathers’ rights and how adoptive parents can avoid being victimized by unscrupulous agencies and facilitators.

“Adoption is a very personally and emotionally charged issue for those touched by it,” Riben acknowledges. “Few can think about or discuss it without passion. For that reason, this may be a difficult or painful book for some to read. It may make you sad, it may shock you, or it may make you angry. But it is for just these reasons that you might need to read it.”

Adopting 'Orphans' - The Lie We Love

It is not without reason that my book subtitles the untold story of the Romanian 'orphans' -
The children in Romanian children's homes were no orphans.
Slowly the world starts acknowledging where the orphan myth is leading to: to demand for adoptable children.

The US and Unicef definition of 'orphans' is that children with one parent are also considered to be 'orphans'. Unicef recently acknowledged that it is time to revisit the use of the term `orphan' and how it is applied to help overcome the confusion.

Unicef- majority of orphans have families

See also:

The Lie We Love

By E. J. Graff


November/December 2008

Foreign adoption seems like the perfect solution to a heartbreaking imbalance: Poor countries have babies in need of homes, and rich countries have homes in need of babies. Unfortunately, those little orphaned bundles of joy may not be orphans at all.

ALEXANDER MARTINEZ/AFP/Getty Images
Who's your mommy?: Parents might never know if their adopted child is truly an orphan.

We all know the story of international adoption: Millions of infants and toddlers have been abandoned or orphaned—placed on the side of a road or on the doorstep of a church, or left parentless due to AIDS, destitution, or war. These little ones find themselves forgotten, living in crowded orphanages or ending up on the streets, facing an uncertain future of misery and neglect. But, if they are lucky, adoring new moms and dads from faraway lands whisk them away for a chance at a better life.

Unfortunately, this story is largely fiction.

Westerners have been sold the myth of a world orphan crisis. We are told that millions of children are waiting for their “forever families” to rescue them from lives of abandonment and abuse. But many of the infants and toddlers being adopted by Western parents today are not orphans at all. Yes, hundreds of thousands of children around the world do need loving homes. But more often than not, the neediest children are sick, disabled, traumatized, or older than 5. They are not the healthy babies that, quite understandably, most Westerners hope to adopt. There are simply not enough healthy, adoptable infants to meet Western demand—and there’s too much Western money in search of children. As a result, many international adoption agencies work not to find homes for needy children but to find children for Western homes.

For the full text CLICK HERE.

Intercountry adoption: France prepares to beat its competitors

ADOPTION: France wants to address its lagging behind

Unofficial translation from Le Figaro

Thanks to the funding of humanitarian projects, the USA, but also Italy and Spain, host many more children from abroad

Paris prepares itself to copy their more efficient methods.

Everyone starts doing it. In respect of Intercountry Adoption, competition is rife among the receiving countries in recent years. With some delay, France is preparing to change its methods after a decline of 20.5% last year, with only 3 162 foreign children adopted by French couples.

Nadine Morano and Rama Yade, respectively secretaries of State for Family and Foreign Affairs, today present their plan to revive adoption (see below). Other countries, thanks to a very proactive policy, succeeded in reversing the declining numbers of international adoptions. France, despite all being in the top three of receiving countries, is thus far behind the USA and has been overtaken by Spain where the number of adoptions has quadrupled in less than ten years. While there are several possible reasons for this decline: growth of domestic adoption in countries like China, slowing adoption procedures to adapt to the Hague Convention, which regulates the practices… But in this context, Italy has still seen its international adoptions jump by 9%.

Competition can be played within orphanages. In its bilateral agreements, Vietnam, for example, requires funding for a humanitarian project. "For a project, the French agencies approved for adoption (OAA) can give about 15 000 euros. The Americans will have an envelope at least twice as large. Their adoption agencies operate like private businesses, "says someone from Doctors of the World. "The orphanages say that children are not assigned based on money received, but there is a principle of reality that we can not ignore," he yet deplores.

The financial weight of the USA, which generates more than half of international adoptions, can not be ignored. "France, can invest in major works such as construction of a hospital but did not provide money for projects to link more directly with children and adoption," another OAA regrets.

Italian families less demanding

Projects that sometimes flirt with the limits of the framework imposed by the Hague Convention. "When agencies are working on programs to prevent abandonment and are also doing adoptions, how do you know if everything is done for a mother to keep her child? Especially if there is a financial issue behind "asks Stephanie Romanens-Pythoud, a lawyer at the International Social Service.

In terms of humanitarian projects, Italy, for its part is illustrated by an effective policy, with funding from the central authority. Actions which are also valued by diplomatic channels. "The State finances the full cost of Italian OAA – offices, local correspondents - which leaves them the money to build search teams," says Gilbert Bayon, president of Les Enfants de reine de miséricorde, which operates Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. "These research teams criss-cross the country to find small orphanages not identified by authorities hosting adoptable children." Even if it is then the Government of Burkina Faso that "assigns" the children in hosting families, "this aid for the census weighs heavy, "points out Gilbert Bayon.

But "good" results of Italy have another cause: the host families have understood that they had to be less demanding. In France, only 23% of adopted children are more than five years. In Italy, this figure exceeds 50%. However, this practice has been directly encouraged by the Italian authorities. In Peru, the "Angel che guardan" programme was created to boost the adoption of already big children. Finally, the good implantation of Italian nuns in orphanages in countries of origin would also favours assigning children to their compatriots. The Spanish enjoy the same advantage.

Subsidising intercountry adoption

Intercountry adoption has become a full-fledged market, so much is acknowledged by most parties. And a competive market

My book outlined the market of Romanian children. And at the time, around 2001, almost everyone agreed that a market, in Romania's case based on points gained in return for money or project aid, was not desirable. For details see Romania-For Export Only.

That has changed. Accepting the market system, importing countries now struggle on how to get their share of children in this competitive market.

Israel recently agreed to increase the amount of money allowed to pay for adoptable children. They now regret that decision. Not because baby-buying should not exist, but because the the price of 22.000 to 24.000 euros means that not every Israeli family can affort it. One of the ways to solve it could be to have the State subsidise poor family's adoption.
Read the full article here

A Dutch expert Committee's proposal even went further: subsidising adoptive families AND subsidising adoption agencies - motivated by the ever increasing costs of adoption - and following the example of Sweden and Denmark where adoption subsidies of aproximately 5.000 euros exist already.

And where does the money go? On salaries of those who facilitate this business, on payments to 'orphanages', on foreign trips to have poor countries' official come over, on (small) bribes - because, yes, the Dutch expert committee felt that paying bribes, if part of the local culture, should be acceptable in cases of intercountry adoption.

And last but not least, development aid needs to accompany intercountry adoptions. The US, Italy and Sweden do it, France wants it, and it is what the Dutch expert committee prosed (although the latter motivated this as a way to ethically justify adoptions - mindboggling if you ask me).

And then we are back at a 'point system', although after the Romanian fiasco, that word will not be officially used by other countries, I guess.

Dutch Anouk hails modern world of adoption

Well these days adoption is a hot thing,
you can get a child for nearly nothing.
You take them home to a nanny,
buy off ur guilt with toys and candy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK26ojnNtW4

Towards a supermarket for adoption?

End March Jean-Pierre Colombani, former Director of the French newspaper 'Le Monde' and adoptive father, handed his report on adoption to President Sarkozy. The latter had asked him to explore how more children could be found for the French families waiting to adopt. After all, the French target set by the former French government was to double adoptions from 4.000 to 8.000. I reported on this before
French Adoption Agency has difficulty in satisfying waiting families.

The 380 pages report holds over 30 recommendations, mainly on how to get more children from abroad, but also on how to make more French children 'adoptable'.

French adoption expert Pierre Verdier comments on the Colombani report in an article titled 'Vers un supermarché de l’adoption ?'

For the full article in French: Abandon & Adoption:

Quote (informal translation):

Pierre Verdier questions the arguments advanced in the Colombani report like the fact of announcing the number of " 2 100 small children who could be the subject of a project of adoption". This number, he says, comes from nowhere. Would it be the pernicious idea to make believe that many adoptable children suffer in their children homes because of administrative blockings and the practices of social workers who would give priority to the bonds with the family?
This assumption is not eccentric when one takes this sentence from the report literally: "One should not give up evolving the practices in order to increase the number of children likely to be adopted." Pierre Verdier sees this advertisement as an effect of the politics of quotas.

Another avenue proposed by M. Colombani: EUROPEAN ADOPTIONS
To be continued...

Dutch couple re-arrested for illegal Sri Lanka baby trafficking

The Dutch couple who got themselves involved in a case of child trafficking of a two-week old baby in August 2007 got arrested again. This time by the Dutch authorities.

The two had been in prison in Sri Lanka until October 2008, when they were released on bail. February this year they arrived back in The Netherlands. Their role as witness in the courtcase against the Sri Lankans accused of the trafficking had released them of the charges against them.

According to today's news alleges that the Dutch couple, in October 2008 - so when just out of prison - AGAIN falsified paperwork in an attempt to still adopt the baby.

Adoption Agencies in a competitive market

The Center for Adoption Policy reports that

for the last ten years, Intercountry Adoption has appealed to many U.S families because of its relative reliability, ease and lower costs. However the closing or constriction of almost every international adoption program, including Guatemala, China, Ukraine and Russia, has left American families disillusioned with if not disbarred from participating in ICA. As a result domestic adoption has begun to seem a more reliable and predictable as well as equally affordable alternative.

With the number of intercountry adoptions going down, adoption agencies are having a hard time. Their organisation, their income, depends fully of adoptions. At least in the US adoption agencies can attempt to increase their national adoptions, as the US has 'adoptable children'. That is not the case in most countries in Europe, or in Israel, where children are rarely 'freed for adoption'.

In Israel The Knesset has acknowlegded the difficulties of the adoption agencies in this highly competitive market. They approved an increase of the cost of foreign adoptions by 75 percent; the maximum payment Israeli agencies can spend on adoptions abroad will be raised from NIS 70,000 ($20,000) to NIS 125,000 ($35.000).
A second decision was to change from dollar payment to euros.

Read the full article Knesset increases costs of foreign adoptions by 75 percent

US joined the Hague Convention on Adoption

But will it make a difference?

All adoption agencies were formally screened in order to get a Hague accreditation. It was mainly a peer-review. Some agencies did not make it, but does that really matter?

Perhaps not, as some US agencies have a habit of umbrella-ing, meaning they use other agency's accreditation for their own clients.

Read all about it here:

Janus under the Umbrella