Romanian is still being pressured to export children.

In 2001 Romania placed a ban on Inter Country adoptions of its children after massive corruption was discovered within these kinds of adoptions. Ever since the ban came into place the Country has been unjustly pressurized by the leading Countries involved in Inter- Country Adoptions. France, Italy, Spain, Israel and the US and UK have all lobbied to get this ban lifted. The politicians in these Countries involved have interests in adoption agencies and in many cases adoptive parents too. If their interests were in the actual child they would see clearly that Inter-Country adoptions was not in the child’s best interest.

In 2009 when Hillary Clinton met the Romanian foreign Minister he was handed a letter urging Romania to reform this ban on Inter Country Adoptions so that children could again be exported for huge sums of hard cash to foreign couples despite the fact there are few orphans available in Romania for adoption nowadays. The EU funded childcare reforms saw the closure of the massive old style orphanages of the early 1990s. It was I also add the EU that insisted that Romania actually stop Inter Country Adoptions after the discovery of massive corruption within the old system of Inter Country Adoptions. The problem is that Hillary Clinton clearly seems to support along with many US senators the side of these large well funded adoption agencies that make huge profits out of the financial transactions of Romanian children and they continue to lobby unjustly for children rather than accept the reality of a country that has actually been praised for its childcare reforms including by US childcare experts.

The fierce adoption lobby has now also infiltrated the EU and Council of Europe too and again in 2009 there was a conference named ‘Challenges in Adoption Procedures’ that clearly was aimed at re opening Romanian Inter Country Adoptions again and even talk of a new way to mask these kinds of adoptions as European adoptions! Hidding in the back of this group is French business man and adoption lobbyist Francois de Combret with his NGOs SERA and CARE France and former EP parliament member Claire Gibault.

The conference resolved nothing as there was no agreement between the parties present headed by the largest lobbyists in Europe today. It must also be stated that Romania is a sovereign Country and has the right to offer is children the best protection available and rule its own affairs providing they do not break international law. In the case of International adoptions they certainly do not break international law or the ban which was supported by EU and financed by them would never have been allowed anyway.

Now today the Romanian child care case is being heard again in the The European Parliament Petitions Commission in a case brought by Amici dei Bambini, one of the largest Italian adoption agencies. It also comes at a time when the Commission’s president is Italian Erminia Mazzoni, who support Amici Dei Bambini and many of her co nationals who look to adopt a child. In this petition Amici dei Bambini president Marco Griffini calls for a reversal of the ban again despite the fact that in his own Country they have themselves massive unresolved childcare problems!

In Romania between 1990 and 1997 10.000 plus children were exported to by agencies to foreign couples with no trace of them since ever being reported. What happened to these children and were are they now I ask?

The Romanian Office for Adoptions in its searches has found that in this period an inventory shows only the numbers of children adopted, no names, addresses or to were they went.

There is still today no news of what happened to 16.041 Romanian children exported for profit abroad. With no post adoption reports as required sent back to Romania it is clear that there are huge dangers in these kinds of adoptions and this fact remains today. The actual 16.041 figure could be higher as many children who went abroad for adoption in were never registered at all and no one knows were they went to or to whom or if are alive or dead.

It is therefore with absolute Right that Romania banned Inter-Country Adoptions and reformed its childcare to EU standards with full EU support and gave its children protection from being trafficked abroad to the highest bidder who contacted an adoption agency. Prices of upwards of 30.000 Euro was changing hands for a child and the interest of the child was never considered, plus because of these high prices Romanian couples were unable to adopt also as agencies placed children direct to foreign couples first.

The Romanian child care reforms saw the largest majority of children re untited with their biological parents or relatives, the introduction of Foster Care as in all of Europe (and the US likewise) family type modern homes for children in need of support and the development of a national Romanian adoption system for the many Romanian’s who themselves want to adopt a child, plus it is with adding here that there are twice as many Romanians listed as wishing to adopt a child as children available today, thus again proving there is now no need for Inter Country Adoptions. The Romanian national adoption system is in compliance also legally with the Hague convention on the rights of the child.

Ms Roelie Post is a commission official seconded to the highly respected ‘Against Child Trafficking’ NGO who for many years worked in the Romanian children’s case including in the childcare reforms. She wrote a book of her experiences named “Romania for Export Only’ which is the untold story of Romania’s orphans and describes within how the huge inter country adoption lobby fought to stop the reforms at every turn, so that they could continue to trade defenseless children for huge sums of hard cash to foreign couples and how the EU also demanded that Romania become the same as the other EU countries and take care of its own children.

Now the lobby has infiltrated the EU and if they gain hold there will be more children lost without trace in child trafficking masked as Inter Country Adoptions.