Adoptees say local adoption system not free from irregularities

혻혻 By Kim Young-gyo
SEOUL, May 14 (Yonhap) — Following recent allegations of irregularities in international adoptions from Vietnam, Korean adoptees said Wednesday South Korea’s adoption system has also had serious problems.

혻혻 “Earlier signals about trafficking from Vietnam … has significant comparisons with those of South Korea in earlier 1970s and 1980s,” said a Dutch activist, who was adopted from South Korea, in an interview with Yonhap News Agency.

혻혻 Hilbrand Westra has been actively involved in international adoption, working as a chairman of the Netherlands-based United Adoptees International, the first independent and international foundation by adoptees, since 2006 with a political and social aim to address problems involving adoption.

혻혻 “In the seventies and eighties, many children disappeared from streets in Seoul and Busan. Many older Koreans in these cities have been confirming that they knew or heard about this. Still, no one ever asked for a thorough investigation in South Korea,” Westra said.

혻혻 Last month, the U.S. embassy in Vietnam released a report, describing cases in which children had allegedly been sold and families pressured to give up their babies. The report also said adoption facilitators were engaging in fraudulent operations to conceal the identity of the birth parents.

혻혻 Dismissing the accusations, the Vietnamese government said it would end an adoption agreement with the United States after July 1.
“Since adoption exists, child trafficking is a booming mechanism behind it. But since child trafficking is not called abduction and is used for adoption it is internationally not forbidden. In other words, stealing children for adoption is allowed as long as you keep the child safe and healthy afterwards,” Westra said.

혻혻 He argued that South Korea has not ratified international agreements on adoption, leaving possible corruption in the adoption system uncontrolled.

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And they just keep getting worse…

Couple Upset Adoption Halted By Vietnam

POSTED: 7:56 pm CDT May 7, 2008
UPDATED: 8:10 pm CDT May 7, 2008

OLATHE, Kan. — A disagreement between the United States and Vietnam could devastate a local couple’s adoption plan.

Heidi Fenton has a closet full of baby girl clothes.

She and her husband have been trying to adopt an infant from Vietnam.

However, Vietnam stopped taking adoption applications from Americans on Sept. 1 following a U.S. Embassy report of infants being sold and mothers being pressured to give up their babies.

The Fentons have been working with an adoption agency for 18 months and they have spent $10,000 on the adoption so far. Heidi Fenton estimates it will cost a total of $30,000.

“I wish the two governments could work it out so that those of us that have been in the process this long could get our babies,” she told KMBC’s Maria Antonia.

Figures indicate more Americans are trying to adopt babies from Vietnam because it has fewer restrictions than China.

According to one estimate, in 2007 the number of Vietnamese children adopted by American families increased 400 percent from the previous year.

Am I crazy or does “fewer restrictions”, the increase in adoptions from Vietnam and corruption not point to something more significant than simply a “disagreement between the United States and Vietnam?”

It’s getting to the point where I just don’t know what to say anymore. Not only does this article make it all about the adoptive parent, it reduces the situation down to a “disagreement between the United States and Vietnam.” I’m aware that there are people out there who don’t understand why I keep on the media about their narrow, biased articles on adoption.

For those of you who don’t or who would reduce it to just wanting to complain, I’ll tell you. The amount of naive assumptions and ignorant opinions I run into related to adoption is probably one of the biggest reasons.

Articles like these the need for alternative opinions from more critical members of the adoption community. I just love how it reduces things down to “a disagreement” between governments and makes it all about the adoptive parent.

I’ve heard other opinions that paint concerns over corruption in adoption as little more than a matter of politics. Others have told me that they don’t think a lot of things they read in the media translate into real life. I don’t fully disagree or agree with any of those statements. Truth, as I’ve come to discover, is usually “a little of column A, a little of column B,” as one of my friends would phrase it.

This whole thing with adoptions from Viet Nam has left me sickened and disgusted, so much so that I had to take several steps back in order to keep my perspective in check. Without the support and understanding of several of my adoptee friends, I would have thrown my hands up and walked away a long time ago.

When I first began blogging, I scoured the internet looking for the critical voices of fellow Vietnamese adoptees. I always came back empty-handed and disheartened. If not for a small number of adoptees, non-adoptee friends and even a few adoptive parents, I would have given myself up for being crazy.

Finally, after close to two years of blogging about adoption, a few distinctive voices began to emerge. For me, it was as if my work had finally come to fruition. I could relax, step back and watch as they ignited to shed more light on the Vietnamese adoptee perspective and experience. They’ve become rare gems in the sky, beacons of hope and support. I can’t imagine life without them.

That made it all the more infuriating when I read a four-part series featured on Nguoi Viet, a Vietnamese American newspaper, which was little more than a shopping brochure. Not only that, it was completely devoid of adult Vietamese adoptee voices and made only a cursory, dismissive mention of the corruption. Shame! Shame!

There will be more on this later, because there’s a story behind this that needs to be told. Given what’s occurred in Vietnamese adoptions over the last several months, it makes the publishing of this series significant for several reasons. But like I said, more to come at a later date…

The Adoption Show - Kevin Mînh Allen

Two adult adoptees discuss the recent changes between the Vietnam International Adoption industry and the United States.

Our very own, Kevin from Borrowed Notes will be on an upcoming episode of The Adoption Show - May 25th. It fills me with such pride to see a Vietnamese adoptee out there speaking realistically and critically about adoption. I’m sure this is going to be a discussion worth hearing.

Thanks to Kali Coultas and The Adoption Show for putting this out there!

6 Vietnamese suspected of trying to sell babies arrested

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Chinese police arrested six people suspected of trying to sell two newborn Vietnamese babies as part of a baby-trafficking ring, Vietnamese authorities said Wednesday.

Police in the Chinese border town of Dongxing detained the six Vietnamese — four men and two women — as they allegedly were transporting two 10-day-old boys inside China just beyond the border, said Nguyen Thai Binh, deputy police chief of Mong Cai in northern Vietnam.

Chinese police made the arrests after acting on a tip from Vietnamese authorities monitoring a smuggling ring, he said.

The initial investigation showed that the six allegedly were paid by ring leaders in Ho Chi Minh City to transport the two babies to China to sell them, Binh said.

The suspects were handed over to Quang Ninh provincial police for further investigation, and the two babies were taken to a social welfare center, he said.

Binh said police in Quang Ninh province will cooperate with Ho Chi Minh City police in investigating where the two babies came from, he added.

Last week, Vietnam announced it would stop processing new adoption applications from U.S. citizens after July 1 following allegations of baby-selling, corruption and fraud.

The announcement came days after The Associated Press published details of a U.S. Embassy report that alleged rampant abuses, including hospitals selling infants whose mothers could not pay their bills, brokers scouring villages for babies and a grandmother who gave away her grandchild without telling the child’s mother.

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Chinese and Vietnamese police have arrested six baby traffickers in a border town and rescued two newborn baby boys, Vietnamese authorities said.

The four men and two women, all Vietnamese, were arrested in the Chinese border town of Dongxing and handed to Vietnamese police, who had tipped off their counterparts, said a police officer in the Vietnamese town of Mong Cai.

“We have a cooperation hotline with the local Chinese police. With their help, the smugglers were arrested on Monday,” said the Quang Ninh province police officer who asked not to be named.

The suspected baby smugglers, who were aged between 15 and 66, were transferred to provincial police for further investigation. The two babies were turned over to a social welfare centre, the officer said.

“This is the third baby trafficking case we have detected this year, bringing the number of rescued babies to five,” he said.

Vietnamese police busted a trafficking syndicate in February, which sold babies to China for adoption, reportedly charging about $US500 each for girls and $US1,000 for boys.

The US embassy in Hanoi recently issued a damning report about widespread baby selling and rampant corruption in the adoption system in Vietnam, which led Hanoi to cancel a bilateral adoption agreement.

Guatemalan lawmaker’s sister arrested in suspected illegal adoptions of 9 children

GUATEMALA CITY: The sister of a Guatemalan congressman was charged Wednesday with running an illegal adoption ring after police found nine children in her home.

Police raided Rosalina Rivera’s house Tuesday in search of a kidnapped 4-year-old boy, Attorney General Baudilio Portillo said. Officers did not find the boy, but stumbled upon nine children between seven and 12 months of age instead.

Rosalina Rivera was taken into custody and released on bail early Wednesday, Guillermo Melgar, a spokesman for Guatemala’s judicial system, told The Associated Press.

“She said she was just taking care of the babies while their mothers were at work,” but she was unable to say where the birth mothers were, Melgar said.

Rivera is the sister of congressman Gudy Rivera, president of a congressional committee on minors and family affairs.

Last week, the attorney general announced a full case-by-case review of all of Guatemala’s 2,286 pending foreign adoptions, as authorities overhaul an adoptions system plagued by fraud and corruption.

Rep. Rivera’s committee asked the national Adoptions Council to freeze all foreign adoptions for at least a month to allow for the review.

Guatemala has been the No. 2 source of adopted babies for U.S. parents after China, largely because its system is relatively easy to navigate. Prospective parents paid notaries as much as US$30,000 (€19,400) to walk them through the process from start to finish.

Vietnam, where growing numbers of Americans have turned to adopt children, last week announced it will stop processing new adoption applications from U.S. citizens in July, following allegations of baby-selling, corruption and fraud.

A U.S. Embassy report in Hanoi outlined rampant abuses, including hospitals selling infants whose mothers could not pay their bills, brokers scouring villages for babies and a grandmother who gave away her grandchild without telling the child’s mother.

Vietnam’s International Adoption Agency has called those allegations groundless.

Vietnam to end adoption program with US

HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnam is ending a baby adoption agreement with the United States after being accused of allowing corruption and baby-selling, officials said Monday.

The agreement was being considered for renewal but the two sides remained far apart over revisions, said Vu Duc Long, director of Vietnam’s International Adoption Agency. The agreement expires on Sep. 1.

The decision not to renew the pact was made after the U.S. embassy in Hanoi released a report earlier this month alleging pervasive corruption and baby-selling in Vietnam’s adoption system.

The allegations were “unfair,” Long said. “They can say whatever they want, but we are not going to renew it.”

In a letter sent to the U.S. embassy in Hanoi on April 25, Vietnam said it will stop taking adoption applications from American families after July 1, but will continue to process applications of families who are matched with babies before July 1 until the agreement expires.

The decision will also lead to the closure of 42 U.S. adoption agencies operating in Vietnam, Long said.

The U.S. suspended all adoptions from Vietnam in 2003, also over concerns about corruption. A bilateral agreement between the two countries was resumed in 2006.

Since then adoptions from Vietnam have boomed with more than 1,200 Vietnamese children being adopted by Americans over the 18 months ending March 31. In 2007 alone, Americans adopted 828 Vietnamese children.

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Adopted Children Immigrant Visa Unit

Summary of Irregularities in Adoptions in Vietnam

On October 25, 2007 in response to “growing concerns about irregularities in the methods used to identify children for adoption in Vietnam and the resulting difficulties in classifying those children as orphans,” USCIS required that I-600 petitions be filed in Ho Chi Minh City, with the processing of these petitions to be completed before prospective adoptive parents travel to Vietnam. These procedures enable USCIS to determine whether a child qualifies as an orphan, as defined by the Immigration and Nationality Act. In the six months since this program was instituted, US officials in Vietnam have investigated over 300 I-600 petitions. This report presents a summary of our findings.

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Country Fraud Profile
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Vietnam is considered to be a high risk country for immigration fraud according to the Department of State. Fraudulent documents are routinely submitted by Vietnamese applicants in both non-immigrant and immigrant visa applications. These include both documents that have been fabricated outright and official documents issued improperly or based on incorrect information. Birth certificates, household registry documents, and marriage certificates can easily be purchased from corrupt local government officials or brokers. Marriage fraud, in order to obtain immigration benefits, is common and has resulted in multiple arrests in the United States.

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Vietnamese official discredits US criticism of adoption system

A senior government official Saturday rejected a US embassy report criticizing the Vietnamese adoption system.

Vu Duc Long, director of the Justice Ministry’s Department of International Adoptions, said the allegations in the US Embassy report were “groundless” and “unreliable.”

US authorities “did not cooperate with their Vietnamese counterparts in its investigation,” Long said.

The report, released Friday, claimed the Vietnamese adoption system was riddled with corruption and fraud.

The report, written after a review of hundreds of adoptions by US citizens since 2006, said there was evidence of baby-selling in Vietnam.

The two countries agreed to resume the practice of inter-country adoptions in 2006.

In the 18-month period ending March 31, Americans – including actress Angelina Jolie – adopted more than 1,200 Vietnamese children.

A bilateral agreement on adoptions, which was signed in 2005, will expire on September 1.

Long said the US would use the report as a reason for not extending the adoption agreement.

The Associated Press (AP) quoted Long as saying bribery of orphanage officials may occur but serious offenses such as baby-selling or kidnapping were not a problem.

US adoption agencies active in Vietnam told AP that most adoptions in the country were ethical.

Already, the US embassy’s concerns “have left scores of Vietnamese adoptions in limbo,” the AP report said.