Bulgaria exports its children
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Bulgaria exports its children
15:00 Thu 26 Sep 2002 - By Molly McAnailly Burke
BULGARIA has the highest number of infants in state institutions in Europe or the former Soviet Union, according to figures from the National Statistics Institute and a State Agency for Child Protection estimate for this year.
About 22 000 children, 3 000 of them infants, are in care, representing a staggering segment of a population of only 8 million. Some 65 per cent are Roma, far disproportionate to the Bulgarian Roma population.
According to a World Bank project appraisal last year, the cost of keeping a child in an institution is also more than double the amount that it takes to care for a child in a family, and is therefore wasteful of resources.
Reliance on institutions is also in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), signed by Bulgaria in 1990, which states that institutional care should be considered a "last resort".
The convention requires that "the persons, institutions and authorities whose consent is necessary for adoption, have been counselled as may be necessary and duly informed of the effects of their consent, in particular whether or not an adoption will result in the termination of the legal relationship between the child and his or her family of origin," that consents have not been induced by payment or compensation of any kind and have not been withdrawn, that the consent of the mother, where required, has been given only after the birth of the child and that he or she has been counselled and duly informed of the effects of the adoption and of his or her consent to the adoption, if consent is required.
Despite this country's adoption of the Child Protection Act (CPA) in 2000, which also stipulates children should be placed in institutions if no family-based solution can be found, the numbers of children in care has not decreased.
Children's institutions are commonly referred to as "orphanages", even though a majority having living relatives, and a number of NGOs are concerned that inadequate steps are being taken to return or reintegrate children back into the family sphere.
Poverty alone is the primary cause of the institutionalisation of children, but as yet the infrastructure for the assistance of families who would like to keep their children is meagre.
Despite the fact that "full reform of the child care system" was a priority identified in the 1999 Accession Partnership document for Romania, no such requirement was applied to Bulgaria, and hence foreign adoption is on the increase, a fact that has been noted by the Bulgarian Ministry of Justice, while domestic adoption is decreasing.
According to a spokesperson from Directorate of Bulgarian Citizenship and Adoption at the Ministry of Justice, native parents "express the wish to adopt children of Bulgarian origin with specific characteristics and health condition, which is not the case with foreign adopters."
According to UNICEF statistics, more than 1000 Bulgarian children, or a third of those available for adoption each year, are being taken out of the country, in what is considered a highly lucrative business. Although some institutions have been investigated for child trafficking, no charges have yet been brought.
About 22 000 children, 3 000 of them infants, are in care, representing a staggering segment of a population of only 8 million. Some 65 per cent are Roma, far disproportionate to the Bulgarian Roma population.
According to a World Bank project appraisal last year, the cost of keeping a child in an institution is also more than double the amount that it takes to care for a child in a family, and is therefore wasteful of resources.
Reliance on institutions is also in violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), signed by Bulgaria in 1990, which states that institutional care should be considered a "last resort".
The convention requires that "the persons, institutions and authorities whose consent is necessary for adoption, have been counselled as may be necessary and duly informed of the effects of their consent, in particular whether or not an adoption will result in the termination of the legal relationship between the child and his or her family of origin," that consents have not been induced by payment or compensation of any kind and have not been withdrawn, that the consent of the mother, where required, has been given only after the birth of the child and that he or she has been counselled and duly informed of the effects of the adoption and of his or her consent to the adoption, if consent is required.
Despite this country's adoption of the Child Protection Act (CPA) in 2000, which also stipulates children should be placed in institutions if no family-based solution can be found, the numbers of children in care has not decreased.
Children's institutions are commonly referred to as "orphanages", even though a majority having living relatives, and a number of NGOs are concerned that inadequate steps are being taken to return or reintegrate children back into the family sphere.
Poverty alone is the primary cause of the institutionalisation of children, but as yet the infrastructure for the assistance of families who would like to keep their children is meagre.
Despite the fact that "full reform of the child care system" was a priority identified in the 1999 Accession Partnership document for Romania, no such requirement was applied to Bulgaria, and hence foreign adoption is on the increase, a fact that has been noted by the Bulgarian Ministry of Justice, while domestic adoption is decreasing.
According to a spokesperson from Directorate of Bulgarian Citizenship and Adoption at the Ministry of Justice, native parents "express the wish to adopt children of Bulgarian origin with specific characteristics and health condition, which is not the case with foreign adopters."
According to UNICEF statistics, more than 1000 Bulgarian children, or a third of those available for adoption each year, are being taken out of the country, in what is considered a highly lucrative business. Although some institutions have been investigated for child trafficking, no charges have yet been brought.
2002 Sep 26