Orphanages in fake document investigation

Police from northern Nam Dinh Province are seeking charges against the head of an orphanage in Y Yen District for allegedly forging adoption documents.

Tran Thi Luong, director of the Humanity Assistance Center (HAC) of Y Yen District, was accused of faking papers documenting the origins of babies.

Under Vietnamese law, a child must be abandoned by its parents or orphaned to be eligible for adoption.

Nam Dinh police earlier arrested the director and accountant of Truc Ninh District’s Social Assistance Center (SAC), Vu Dinh Khan and his son, Vu Van Kiem, following similar allegations.

Commune officials Vu Dinh Loi and Truong Cong Lich and Nam Dinh Town resident Tran Trong Lam have also been taken into custody fortheir alleged involvement.

Lam is accused of finding babies and handing them to Loi and Lich, who prepared fake documents recording the babies’ origins and took the infants to HAC.

Since 2006, HAC and SAC have organized adoption documents for 300 babies aged under five.

Foreigners had adopted about 220 of 242 deserted children found by SAC since 2005, an official from Nam Dinh Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs said.

Since March 2006, another 100 children were reported to have been adopted from HAC.

Nam Dinh Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Director Nguyen Van Vinh said the centers, managed by district authorities, did not meet childcare standards.

Reported by Truong Dinh