Today, both the Associated Press is reporting that another baby-trafficking ring in China has been busted by authorities. This one was based in Shanghai. An excerpt from the AP wire piece, picked up by USA Today: “Police in Shandong province’s Zoucheng city found last month that 17 infants had been sold in the city to Chinese buyers, the Global Times newspaper said. Police rescued 13 of the babies and sent them to welfare centers, and a search is under way for the other four, the paper said. …Chen said baby boys could be sold for up to 50,000 yuan ($7,730), while the...
Hayely Kolb, blogger at the Hanging off the Wire blog, says the following about Finding Fernanda: “The research on this book is impeccable. It is so hard to read or hear about these kinds of stories. The author brings to light one little girl’s story. Though this book is non-fiction, the story moves along so well that the end you go – wow, this is really real. You get mad reading this, making you want to do something, be an activist. And if you find yourself feeling that way, I suggest you pass this book along to all your friends,...
An article from the October 28, 2011 edition of the U.K. newspaper The Telegraph, “The Indian preacher and the fake orphan scandal” by Dean Nelson, details a child trafficking scam in Nepal and India. “Parents paid a child-trafficker more than £100 to take their daughters to good schools in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, but instead they were taken more than 1,200 miles to Tamil Nadu, southern India. At the Michael Job Centre, a Christian orphanage and school in Coimbatore, they were converted to Christianity, given western names and told that its charismatic founder, Dr PP Job, was now their father.” Read the...
An article entitled “Shelbyville woman who sent boy back to Russia gets sued,” by Jennifer Brooks ran in today’s edition of the Gannett newspaper The Tennessean. An excerpt: “A Shelbyville woman who put her adopted son on a one-way flight back to Russia is being sued for child support. The agency that placed the 7-year-old Russian child with Torry Hansen filed suit, arguing that simply shipping the boy back to Moscow with a note pinned to his jacket does not terminate her parental rights. Attorneys for both sides will meet at Bedford County Circuit Court this morning for a hearing...
An excerpt from Drucilla Cornell’s Opinionator piece, “The ‘Enabling Violation’ of International Adoption,” in the October 24, 2011 New York Times: “On April 24, 1993, I legally adopted my daughter in Asuncion, Paraguay. I will never forget that day. I was a complete nervous wreck. Our adoption was being expedited because the first free elections in decades were to be held that spring, following the 35-year rule of the dictator Alfredo Stroessner, who was ousted in a military coup in 1989. There was much uncertainty as to whether the election would even take place, and concern that another military coup...
UPDATE: The verdict from Guatemala is in. Both women have been found guilty of human trafficking, document fraud, and criminal enterprise (“asociación ilicita”). Valle Flores de Mejia received a sentence of 21 years in prison. Noriega Cano will serve 16. Both women have been ordered to pay Loyda Rodríguez and her husband Dayner Hernández 100,000 Quetzales (about $12,800 USD) in damages. The media has picked up the Associated Press piece about the verdict, and you can read it here at Newsday: http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/guatemala-sentences-2-in-us-adoption-case-1.3270090. ___ This morning, Timothy and Jennifer Monahan of Liberty, Missouri appeared on the CBS Early Show. They spoke about the...
The October 10, 2011 edition of the LA Times online has an article called “Court orders El Salvador to investigate children’s disappearances,” by Ken Ellingwood. “Human rights advocates are hailing an international court decision ordering the government of El Salvador to fully investigate the cases of hundreds of children who disappeared during the nation’s civil war three decades ago. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, based in San Jose, Costa Rica, found rights violations in the cases of six youngsters who vanished after being taken away by soldiers in 1981 and 1982. One of the six children, Gregoria Contreras, 4 years old...
An excerpt from a June 1995 Cable from the US Embassy in Guatemala to Secretary of State in Washington, US Embassy Mexico, US Embassy Guangzhou, ARA Central America, American Consulate Rio de Janeiro, US Embassy Moscow, American Consulate Madras, US Embassy Bucharest, US Embassy Asuncion, & INS Washington DC. Subject: “The Integrity of Int’l Adoptions and service to AmCits (American Citizens)” “We can now state unequivocally, but sadly, that there are instances of child stealing in Guatemala. In recent meetings with Emboffs (Embassy officials), Guatemalan Deputy Attorney General for Children’s Issues Carmela Curup Chacon, and Director of Criminal Investigations for the Public Ministry, Estuardo Solorzano...
The Consejo Nacional de Adopciones (National Council on Adoptions) has been publishing the following posters to increase public awareness about adoptions in Guatemala: “I want to be like you! Adopting gives a child hope for a better life and a grand future.” “Adoption is an act of love that begins with the desire to parent. It’s free, transparent, reliable, and totally legal.” “There is a child waiting for your love! If you are interested in adoption, the National Council on Adoption invites you to participate in a free information lecture.” ”Once upon a time, there was a happy family…. To...
Adoptive parents Jeanna and Michael Malota filed a lawsuit on September 21, 2011 against Celebrate Children International (CCI), the adoption agency in my book, Finding Fernanda. The Malotas have accused CCI of false reporting, saying that the agency had hidden the fact that one of the children they offered to the Malotas had “extensive special needs” and will require “a lifetime of extensive treatment.” The child, referred to by the initials “LM” in the court filing, is said to have been offered in adoption as a healthy child. The suit goes on to say that “LM” was hospitalized after displaying “violent...
The Embrey family began adopting two young sisters, ages 4 and 6, from Guatemala in 2007. The older girl was able to immigrate to the US in 2008, but the younger girl couldn’t. Her identity had been used once before in the adoption of a third child to a different US family. So what happens next? 1. When did you start trying to adopt from Guatemala, and why? For a long time, I have felt a burden for children who do not have families to love them. I believe God used this burden to get me to explore the...
From a November 1996 US Embassy cable: “…According to US immigration law, a child whose mother refused to voluntarily consent to an adoption clearly would not qualify as an “orphan.” As such, when a birth mother changes her mind and refuses to sign a relinquishment for the Embassy it generally means that the case has reached the end. Yet, for the mother herself, her refusal to relinquish the child often means her problems are just beginning. While some Guatemalan attorneys will willingly return the child to its mother, other make the process extremely difficult, if not impossible, by pressuring, threatening,...
