Fraudulent adoption process lands woman in trouble

Mumbai - An allegedly fraudulent adoption process carried out by an American agency has landed 27-year-old Jennifer Haynes in trouble after she was deported back to India in July last year.

Haynes, who was adopted by an American twenty years ago, has now moved the Bombay High Court seeking action against the Americans for International Aid and Adoption (AIAA) that had processed her adoption papers.

In her petition she has blamed the AIAA for jeopardising her stay in America as her adoption process was carried out in violation with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989 and the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Inter-Country Adoption. Now, she has asked the court to direct the Central Adoption Resources Authority (CARA) to de-register AIAA and other foreign agencies based in United States and registered with the Indian Government and stop inter-country adoption.

Her petition states that she is also a victim of sexual abuse from her foster father and the abuse continued even after changing several foster homes.

After her adoption in 1989 at the age of eight, she was flown to US where she was ill-treated by her foster father. After going through the abuse and rejection from foster homes she married Justin Haynes, who worked in a construction company, in 2002, and lived with him and her two children Kadafi, 5, and Kanassa, 4, in Michigan.

She was also convicted in 2001 and 2004 for illegal possession of cocaine by the US Department of Justice, but was later deported to India as she was of Indian origin after the Indian government accepted her repatriation through the Board of Immigrant Appeals in the US.

She is now keen to go back to US as she has not seen her children due to imprisonment and subsequent deportation. Haynes, who is currently staying in a Chembur Hostel, is also finding it difficult to get a job as she does not have proper documents and is surviving on the money sent by her mother-in-law.

She is seeking direction from court so as to direct the authorities to place all records and quantify exemplary damages against the parties responsible for their acts of denying her right to life.

She also wants to be deported back to the United States and restore her ties with her two American minor children and her American husband.

Until then she should be accorded the status of being the state guest in India by providing shelter, food and money to bear the expenses, said the court.

“The case will come up for hearing on January 30,” her advocate Pradip Havnur said.