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The Sydney Morning Herald and the Herald Sun of Australia are reporting that Laos has halted all international adoptions pending the results of an ongoing baby-trafficking for adoption investigation. From the Herald: “Laos is investigating a retired justice ministry official for allegedly selling adopted babies to Australians, Americans and Canadians. The official is accused of seeking out unwanted babies in poor rural areas, obtaining adoption papers and selling the infants to foreigners for up to $US5000 each, according to a Radio Free Asia report….” Full link to the Morning Herald story: http://www.smh.com.au/world/baby-trafficking-probe-20120206-1r25x.html The Herald Sun story: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/laos-probes-sale-of-babies-to-australians/story-e6frf7jx-1226264078692 ...
2/1/2012: “Adoption Battle Over 5-Year Old Boy Pits Missouri Couple Vs. Illegal Immigrant,” ABC News
Yesterday, ABC news aired a piece by Lauren Gilger, Brian Ross, and ANgela M. Hill that shows a different side of an adoption struggle: the American adoptions of children taken from non-citizen immigrants. An excerpt: “A tug-of-war over a five-year-old boy is at the center of a national debate over parental rights and immigration, and a sign of what critics say is a growing trend in which immigrants are being deemed unfit parents because they crossed the border illegally. Seth and Melinda Moser of Carthage, Missouri say the boy they call Jamison is their son, and that returning him to...
“The United States has determined that it will not resume intercountry adoptions in Vietnam on February 1, 2012, when the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption will enter into force there. Despite Vietnam’s initiatives to strengthen its child welfare system and ensure the integrity of its domestic and international adoption process, it does not yet have a fully Hague compliant process in place. We continue to caution adoption service providers and prospective adoptive parents that, to ensure that adoptions from Vietnam will be compliant with the Convention, important steps must still take place...
An article today by Sandra Valdéz in Guatemala’s Prensa Libre alleges that child trafficking for adoption is still occurring in Guatemala. Valdez cites a case where a teenage mother was paid 5,000 Quetzales for her child, who was then brought to the United States. She also writes that pregnant women are traveling to other nearby countries like El Salvador and Nicaragua to relinquish and/or sell children for adoption. “Nicolás Pacheco, presidente de la referida organización, aseguró que El Salvador, Honduras y Nicaragua son algunos de los países hacia donde viajan mujeres embarazadas para dar a luz y dar a los niños...
“The U.S. Embassy in Honduras informs citizens that the Instituto Hondureño de la Niñez y la Familia (IHNFA ) has barred two U.S. adoption agencies from the local adoption process, effective immediately. The IHNFA will no longer approve adoption requests filed by families who utilized the agencies to facilitate the adoption of a local child, as the agencies are no longer registered in Honduras. Only adoptions approved by the IHNFA can be processed for Immigrant Visas, as the IHNFA is the Government of Honduras’ Central Adoption Authority. The following U.S. adoption agencies are no longer accredited in Honduras: 1. Living...
An excerpt from an article by Debora Rey and Michael Warren of the Associated Press: “A former U.S. diplomat testified Thursday that American officials knew Argentina’s military regime was taking babies from dead or jailed dissidents during its “dirty war” against leftists in the 1970s, and it appeared to be a systematic effort at the time. Elliot Abrams testified by videoconference from Washington in the trial of former dictators Jorge Videla and Reynaldo Bignone and other military and police figures accused of organizing the theft of babies from women who were detained and then executed in the 1976-1983 junta’s torture...
An excerpt from a piece by Kelly Hearn today in Women’s eNews: “BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (WOMENSENEWS)–In a major trial here, the government is accusing 11 former leaders of the military junta of systematically appropriating infants belonging to some of the 30,000 citizens who were killed for being deemed “leftist subversives” during the so-called Dirty War from 1976 to 1983. The trial, expected to close this year, is being closely watched by a group of women now in their 80s or 90s, known as the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. For 30 years they have driven a very public effort to find...
In today’s Mail Online, an article by Sheila Flynn and Gerard Couzens looks at a child-trafficking bust in Guadalajara, México. An excerpt: “Seven Mexican babies have been seized from Irish couples after police in Guadalajara smashed an international child-smuggling ring. Officials said the couples believed they were following proper adoption channels but that the babies were actually being sold by their mothers. Up to 11 Irish families were being questioned this weekend in connection with the scam, centred in the Guadalajara region of central Mexico, where four local women have been arrested.” Read the full article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086844/ELEVEN-Irish-families-quizzed-Mexico-adoption-racket.html...
A feature published today in the Atlantic, by Kathryn Joyce, is entitled, “How Ethiopia’s Adoption Industry Dupes Families and Bullies Activists.” An excerpt: “In 2008, a 38-year old Oklahoma nurse whom I’ll call Kelly adopted an eight-year old girl, “Mary,” from Ethiopia. It was the second adoption for Kelly, following one from Guatemala. She’d sought out a child from Ethiopia in the hopes of avoiding some of the ethical problems of adopting from Guatemala: widespread stories of birthmothers coerced to give up their babies and even payments and abductions at the hands of brokers procuring adoptees for unwitting U.S. parents....
There’s a new Spanish news documentary called “Children Without Faces,” produced by the media outlet RTVE in Spain. Here’s their description of the piece: “Las redes de crimen organizado extienden sus tentáculos sobre la trata de seres humanos y la explotación infantil casi al mismo ritmo que las adopciones internaciones se convierten en negocios rentables en los países menos desarrollados. Cada vez hay más casos de adopciones, que parecen dentro de la legalidad en el país de origen, pero que esconden historias dramáticas de secuestros de menores. Un ejemplo es Guatemala: Es uno de los países del mundo con mayor porcentaje...
This video report was published by Daily Motion December 8, 2011: Over 600 Arrested in China’s Biggest Child… por NTDTV Reuters also ran a report, entitled “China cracks down on child trafficking”: Chinese authorities have arrested over 600 people and freed 178 children as part of a nationwide crackdown on child trafficking. In southeastern China, police raid houses – arresting people suspected of buying and selling children. http://www.reuters.com/video/2011/12/08/china-cracks-down-on-child-trafficking?videoId=226480362 ...
“A former lawyer has been jailed for five months for her part in an international baby-selling ring that paid women to have babies to sell. The first of three women who pleaded guilty to the scheme, Hilary Neiman, 32, from Maryland was sentenced on Thursday and condemned for preying on couples. She was ordered by U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia to forfeit $133,000 – profits that prosecutors said she made from her role in the fraud, reports the San Diego Tribune.” Read the full piece: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2069555/Lawyer-jailed-international-baby-selling-ring-charged-American-couples-100-000-child.html#ixzz1fXLe9G12...
“Russia’s children’s rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov criticised U.S. authorities for not informing Russia that an American man had been acquitted of the murder of his Russian-born son. In November a jury in U.S. state Iowa decided that Brian Dykstra was not guilty of second-degree murder following the death of his 21-month year old son Isaac in 2005, U.S. news reports said. “The American authorities have only now informed us (of this case). For almost six years they were silent and said nothing. It is inexcusable,” Astakhov told Reuters in an interview.” Read the full article here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/02/us-russia-usa-adoption-idUSTRE7B12FF20111202...
Today, an NPR piece by Alan Greenblatt details the current situation of international adoption. An excerpt: “…Evidence of corruption within Ethiopia’s adoption system means the Franklins and other American and European couples are facing much longer wait times and greater difficulty in bringing children back from that country. Adoption agencies and orphanages there are closing fast. Just in the past year, the number of U.S. adoptions of Ethiopian children has dropped 30 percent. It’s become a familiar story in the world of international adoption. The nations that traditionally have sent the most children to the United States, including South Korea,...
An excerpt from an article in the November 7, 2011 edition of the Times of India, “46 more children with parents identified in Sulur orphanage,” by P. Sreedharan: “COIMBATORE: The ongoing probe into the alleged international child trafficking racket involving an orphanage here after 23 Nepalese children were found in their custody under the guise of orphans has become murkier. The Child Welfare Committee probing into the institution has identified and sent 46 more children to their rightful parents so far. More such cases are expected to crop up in the coming days claimed officials involved in the process. Majority of these children were from Assam...
