Stolen Children - shipped to Australia

Since beginning of last year there is much debate about intercountry adoption in The Netherlands. It started with the news of a stolen, kidnapped Indian child who allegedly had been adopted by Dutch citizens.

Today, Australia was hit by similar news. It is worthwhile reading the full article that explains how this child trafficking took place:

TIME MAGAZINE

Stolen Children

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008 By RORY CALLINAN/CHENNAI

YEARS OF HEARTBREAK: Zabeen's birth mother Fatima at a local tea shop; her daughter was taken as she played outside

BuzzFatima thinks it was her daughter Zabeen's beautiful smile that attracted the child stealer. Playing outside the tea shop near their home in the north Chennai suburb of Washermanpet, with only her four-year-old brother watching, the bright two-year-old was an easy target. While Fatima popped around the corner to the market, Zabeen was bundled into a motorized rickshaw and vanished into the mass of humanity that swirls through the city's squalid alleyways and slums. Full text

French Adoption Squad soon to arrive in Cambodia

The below translated article explains the French initiative to get a bigger share of the international adoption market. As stated, this policy goal was set by the previous French government, in 2004, the same year it became clear that Romania´s door would formally remain closed, and Bulgaria informally slowed down.

Informal translation from :
Le Point

Published on 31/07/2008 No. 1872 Le Point

Adoption - The Rama Yade Plan
Alexander Holroyd

In a fortnight, Clémence Fournier, 25, will fly to Cambodia with a specific mission: to facilitate adoption of foreign orphans by French parents. Based on her experience in India, Madagascar and Cambodia, where she met Rama Yade, the French state secretary in charge of Human Rights, the young humanitarian´s profile fits the "job." She will be the first "international adoption volunteer." A squad of young "ambassadors", recruited on the model of the U.S. Peace Corps, will be present in twenty countries starting next year in order to make the link between adoptive families and local authorities and avoid excesses like Arche de Zoé ... Accompanied by Gérard Depardieu, the father of this program, Rama Yade announced the dispatch of these volunteers during a press conference at the Quai d'Orsay.

She is not the first to tackle this thorny issue. Three years ago, Jean-Pierre Raffarin pledged to double the number of foreign children adopted in France. To be followed by a vast reform and the opening with much fanfare of the French Agency for adoption (AFA). In 2007, the disastrous results of AFA broke out in broad daylight: -20% of international adoptions over the previous year, while Italy, that also mobilized on the subject, showed an increase of 9%. In this context, Jean-Marie Colombani, the former director of Le Monde, last March presented the government with a highly critical report on the state of the adoption in France.

Funded for more than 55% by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the establishment of this network of intercountry adoption volunteers in any case demonstrates the renewed interest of the Quai d'Orsay for a subject hitherto considered not a priority.

So Cambodia is the first of twenty countries this adoption squad will enter. Interesting choice, as most receiving countries stopped adoptions from Cambodia in 2003 following reporting of corruption, child trafficking and visa fraud.

But in 2005 a scandal broke out in France when the French government allowed private adoptions of French couples, despite the closure. The French organisation of adoptive parents rang the alarmbell titled ´When France forgets ethics in adoption´
In February this year, the French adoptive parent organisation wrote again a burning letter to Kouchner, cc Rama Yade, with the same message: again adoptions had been allowed from Cambodia in conflict with laws and procedures, that allow no French private adoptions, but only through adoption agencies or the French Adoption Agency (AFA).

So, are these adoption volunteers going to work for AFA, or for the adoption agencies?

Apart from the French, also the Italians are adopting from Cambodia. The US and most European receiving countries still do not allow adoptions from Cambodia. The UK reviewed the situation in Cambodia in April this year and came to the conclusion that (full text here):

adoption legislation, practice and procedure in Cambodia remain insufficient to ensure the proper protection of children and their families; lifting the suspension at the current time would expose Cambodian children and their families to an increased risk of improper practices that are contrary to the principles of the Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption (the Hague Convention) and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

This is the environment the young French will need to find adoptable children...

Dr. Boas stands up for Korean unwed mothers

A number of adult adoptees, adopted from South Korea, has organised themselves in order to call for Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea (TRACK). Their website is worth visiting and a participation form can be downloaded; the below video can be seen there too:

The Gallic Peace Corps in the footsteps of Zoe's Ark?

Thanks to Abandon & Adoption it is easy to follow what is happening on the French adoption front.

Going through the many comments on the French initiative to send in the troops of young volunteers to find adoptable children for French couples, Zoe's Ark re-appeared.

Who doesn't remember the French humanitarians who tried to save 100 'orphans'who appeared not to be orphans after all. This link is interesting reading to refresh the memory: Untangling The Zoe's Ark Affair

At the time politiciens and adoption experts alike were clear that this kind of rescue missions were not done.

But now, six months later, the French government has formalised this practice: a Gallic Peace Corps will invade poverty stricken nations with one goal: to find adoptable children for French families. French families who adopt independently, so without the involvement of an adoption agency. But with the assistance of the French Adoption Agency (AFA), a governmental body that accompanies such adoptions. It is not totally clear to me AFA works exactly. It is not an agency, it is not the French Central Authority. It is what the French call The Third Way (besides agency and private adoptions).

Mr. Colombani, in his report for the French President Sarkozy, had noted that the French adoption agencies were in a difficult position, as they were needed to compete with other countries who dressed up their adoption requests with humanitarian aid.

Therefore, the Gallic Peace Corps will need money for humanitarian projects. The first private funder is a French industrialist, Zannier, who founded the Holy Lola orphanage. And actor Gerard Depardieu will do the fundraising, so that not only the rich and famous have easy access to adoptable children.

Did I already mention that since June this year France is having a real Ambassador for intercountry adoption: Jean-Paul Monchau.

To me the Gallic Peace Corps looks like another Ark, and not only to me. A French reader of Le Monde proposed to call the "Peace Corps à la française" : « Yadé's Ark ». Yadé is the French Secretary of State who initiated the Frenc Peace Corps. Her boss, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner remains silent.

However, let's not forget this:

France’s new foreign minister, Dr Bernard Kouchner, personifies the ‘right to intervene’ that was invoked in the ‘humanitarian military interventions’ of the 1990s and in post-9/11 arguments for ‘regime change’. It is a prescription for mayhem, and now that he has taken on a powerful role in a powerful state, we should keep a close eye on him.

Now that France has the EU Presidency for the next six months, let's keep a close eye on the French.

The European Adoption Battlefield

I know I announced updates on the French/Italian call for European Adoptions... and it is still to come.

In the mean time it is worth reading the excellent blogposting of someone who well understood what I described in my book, and, more importantly, he even better understood the European Adoptions agenda.

The Romanian battlefield for children
By Niels
In many of the discussions I follow on the internet, the Romanian situation keeps returning when talking about banning inter-country adoption. Not so much by those that oppose inter-country adoption as an example of a successful ban, ...
Pound Pup Legacy blogs

To better appreciate the French hunger for children, it's worth reading about the new French initiative to send in the troops of the 'adoption army'

Gap-year mission to find baby orphans for France Options

Peace Corps or adoption army

Allez Enfants...

France will have the EU Presidency for the second half of 2008. In their desperate desire for adoptive children, the French are likely move this issue up to the European agenda.

One of their motives is the stoppage of Romanian adoptions.

Stay tuned - in the next days the French agenda will be unveiled right here.

Part of this agenda is 'European Adoptions' as announced at the last page of 'Romania - For Export Only'.

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.