Pound Pup Legacy

Within the last years World financial recession, which has hit just about every Country harder than anyone could have thought possible a year ago we also see a massive decline in the number of Inter-Country Adoptions Worldwide.

The drop of numbers in these types of child adoptions though has little to do with the World economic crisis as they have been falling for several years now and show a nearly 50% drop in the last 5 years alone.

Clearly there is a reason for this and the fact is that the huge Inter-Country Adoption industry has in recent years been opened up for what it is; an industrial business involved in the sale of children often from poor Countries to those in rich countries with enough wealth to purchase.

Many Countries now are looking and are reforming their childcare practices having realized that exporting children for huge sums of money is not the answer these children need or benefit from overall as are not in the best interest of the child. The reality as was clearly seen in the Romania case was that children were exported to the highest bidder with no thought given for the child and its wishes never taken into account in the time of inter-country adoptions from the Country. Children left the Country not knowing were they were going or who would be their adoptive parents as in many cases had never met the adoptive parents before. The huge business was controlled by dubious adoption agencies working often hand in hand with NGOs as in the Romanian case. One such was SERA who’s initiator Frenchman wealthy businessman François De Combert played a large part gaining approval at the highest level for these adoptions to continue until Romania saw the light and placed a ban on inter-country adoptions, because of the amount of irregularities within the system.

Now in 2009 Romania is no longer in need of such adoptions as has a healthy waiting list of Romanian families wanting to adopt a child internally within their own country. This could never have happened whilst there were inter country adoptions as children were pushed towards the foreign adoption agencies as the profits there were high, not that it was in the child’s best interest.

Turkey now also has started childcare reforms on the Romanian model and very soon it also will not have any need to trade its children abroad as the reforms take effect, thus many more children will benefit from best practices in childcare today.

Moldova, The Ukraine, Russia and other former eastern block states have also seen the light after bad experiences in inter country adoptions and have drastically reduced the number of children available for such adoptions and for certain their reforms will also in coming years spell and end to inter-country adoptions from these countries too.

Guatemala also has like Romania for the last 2 years banned Inter Country adoptions after clear cases of child abductions were found that proved poor parents were coerced into giving up their children and these children were exported abroad many to the US for huge sums of hard cash.

Unfortunately the market in children is now moving to Africa and that Ethiopia is now one of the biggest sending countries - where the adoption business has been going totally wild.

But that it is expected that that country will close next year too due to massive corruption (fake paperwork, children being declared orphan while parents are alive).

The sale of children for up to 30.000 Euro per child is in fact a form of child trafficking as trafficking is defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, or abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments of benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.

All of the above in many cases can be seen to apply in inter country adoptions and the Hague convention clearly has failed to protect the very children who need its support; rather it protects the adopters and agencies who hide behind it!

The answer now being applied that is in the child’s best interest is to in all appropriate cases keep the family together.

Poverty is not a crime and is not a reason for removing children to export them abroad to wealthy families.

With social care it is as has been proved far better to support with both material and counseling a family on low means, thus allowing them to improve their lifestyle, overcome many problems and by doing this the children remain in the love and care of their biological parents. Most are I might add in all Countries that are developing those who are in poverty are either as they were born into it or fell into it, because of a loss of a employment or death of a senior family member and it is a Countries duty to help these classes and this is being undertaken by more Countries nowadays, with more looking to start these kinds of reforms.

For children who cant be home as there are a certain amount in all Countries for various reasons there are many Countries now providing small group care homes of a modern type, well staffed so that this category of children can grow up within their own Country, have local friends, keep their identity, not loose contact with their biological parents and not loose their birth culture all of which is lost in inter country adoptions.

Foster care is also a very good solution for a child who is in need of immediate care out of the biological family setting and it is often the case that after a problem within the family has been resolved that the child can go home again to Mum and Dad and in any case they do not loose contact as visits are encouraged in foster care from biological parents.

What is not required is large orphanages and many Countries again are addressing this problem as Romania did a good number of years ago as orphanages are not in the child’s best interest.

They are places were children are abused and also were many who deal in inter country adoptions have great interests as here is a ready supply of children. No one asks if the parents consent and all are in these cases described easily as abandoned and available to the agencies for export for huge sums of cash.

Clearly all of the above has been realized by more and more Countries who now are placing a higher emphasis on childcare than ever before so that their children’s best interest are placed above all other interests and this is the reason for such a steep decline in the rouge unregulated Inter Country Adoptions worldwide in recent years rather than because of any economical crisis.

Brian Douglas. (Director RCHF.)
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