New foreign adoption rules
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public
New foreign adoption rules
15:00 Thu 19 Jun 2003 - Velina Nacheva
PARLIAMENT has approved amendments to the Family Code, meant to guarantee the best interest of the child in deciding on applications for foreign adoption.
Foreigners will be allowed to adopt a Bulgarian child only if suitable Bulgarian adoptive parents are not found after three successive attempts within six months.
Adoption of abandoned children will be allowed if their parents have not attempted to make contact with them within six months after leaving them at an institution.
"Foreign adopters are allowed to take a Bulgarian child in the event that all options for accommodation with relations and family friends as well as for domestic adoption have been exhausted," according to the new legislation.
"A child may be adopted without his or her parent or parents' consent if, after being placed in institutional care, none of the parents shows any interest in the child over a period of six months from the date on which the parent was to take the child back."
To adopt a Bulgarian child, foreign nationals should seek the permission of the country's Justice Minister.
Adoption regulating bodies will be set up within all regional social assistance departments in accordance with the amendments. They will decide on suitable adoptive parents for each adoptee.
If at least three potential adopters are determined as suitable parents within a six-month period from the date of the child's registration, but none files an application, then the Justice Minister will choose a foreign adopter.
"If no suitable parents are found, the adoption board should inform the Board of the Justice Ministry to choose a suitable foreigner or foreigners as adoptive parents," according to the amendments.
"The number of international adoptions in Bulgaria has not exceeded domestic ones," Fani Videnova, the head of the section of the Ministry of Justice dealing with Bulgarian citizenship and adoption, said at a round table in April.
According to the amendments, an adoptive family or parent should be at least 15 years older than the child; however, their age difference should not exceed 45 years.
There will be a register of children put up for adoption. Details of children available for adoption will be compiled by regional social assistance services. The children's files will include description of personal characteristics, medical records, information on any contacts with the parents and a list of the reasons which made the parents abandon their child.
The head of Save the Children UK, Robert Mangham, told The Echo earlier this year: "There are many children in institutions at the moment who would be better off in international adoptions, provided parents are properly regulated, monitored, and checked out, but it is a quite exceptional circumstance because there is a transition stage from an institutional system to a more community-based preventative approach".
Mangham said such practices provided stimulated corruption.
"Why there should be any profit in it if it is in the best interest of the child to go for adoption internationally?
"We could talk about covering costs like air fares and administration but when you have budget lines with 'miscellaneous', with $3500 contributions to institutions around the country, this is corruption," he said.
Mangham said that taking into account records that there had been 1119 children adopted internationally, and multiplying this by $24 000, "we are talking about an industry worth $30 million a year".
Foreigners will be allowed to adopt a Bulgarian child only if suitable Bulgarian adoptive parents are not found after three successive attempts within six months.
Adoption of abandoned children will be allowed if their parents have not attempted to make contact with them within six months after leaving them at an institution.
"Foreign adopters are allowed to take a Bulgarian child in the event that all options for accommodation with relations and family friends as well as for domestic adoption have been exhausted," according to the new legislation.
"A child may be adopted without his or her parent or parents' consent if, after being placed in institutional care, none of the parents shows any interest in the child over a period of six months from the date on which the parent was to take the child back."
To adopt a Bulgarian child, foreign nationals should seek the permission of the country's Justice Minister.
Adoption regulating bodies will be set up within all regional social assistance departments in accordance with the amendments. They will decide on suitable adoptive parents for each adoptee.
If at least three potential adopters are determined as suitable parents within a six-month period from the date of the child's registration, but none files an application, then the Justice Minister will choose a foreign adopter.
"If no suitable parents are found, the adoption board should inform the Board of the Justice Ministry to choose a suitable foreigner or foreigners as adoptive parents," according to the amendments.
"The number of international adoptions in Bulgaria has not exceeded domestic ones," Fani Videnova, the head of the section of the Ministry of Justice dealing with Bulgarian citizenship and adoption, said at a round table in April.
According to the amendments, an adoptive family or parent should be at least 15 years older than the child; however, their age difference should not exceed 45 years.
There will be a register of children put up for adoption. Details of children available for adoption will be compiled by regional social assistance services. The children's files will include description of personal characteristics, medical records, information on any contacts with the parents and a list of the reasons which made the parents abandon their child.
The head of Save the Children UK, Robert Mangham, told The Echo earlier this year: "There are many children in institutions at the moment who would be better off in international adoptions, provided parents are properly regulated, monitored, and checked out, but it is a quite exceptional circumstance because there is a transition stage from an institutional system to a more community-based preventative approach".
Mangham said such practices provided stimulated corruption.
"Why there should be any profit in it if it is in the best interest of the child to go for adoption internationally?
"We could talk about covering costs like air fares and administration but when you have budget lines with 'miscellaneous', with $3500 contributions to institutions around the country, this is corruption," he said.
Mangham said that taking into account records that there had been 1119 children adopted internationally, and multiplying this by $24 000, "we are talking about an industry worth $30 million a year".
2003 Jun 19