Operation Identity:Cooperating to Protect the Identity of Vietnamese Orphans
Trish Maskew, President of Ethica, recently returned from Vietnam. While in Hanoi, she met with the U.S. Embassy staff, who revealed something that is terribly shocking and upon which Ethica feels compelled to act. U.S. Embassy staff revealed that approximately 85% of the children being placed for adoption now are reportedly abandoned. 85%! The Embassy strongly believes that most of these “abandonments” are in fact staged abandonments. And indeed, the history of the past 10-15 years lends credence to that belief.
The importance of identifying information to adopted persons cannot be overstated. Every adopted person, no matter who they are or who they were born to should know their origins if at all possible. When adoptees for generations have discussed their pain about the lack of info, and their longing for more, there can be no doubt that for the children this is one of the most important things about any adoption. Indeed in the last 15 years there has been a huge push to open adoptions to address the harm that secrecy causes. And yet, in Vietnam evidence suggests that someone is depriving them of this most essential of life’s information. Who is doing it? We don’t know; there are several possibilities discussed in more depth below. It is our sincere hope that no agency or agency contractor is doing so intentionally, and we believe that not all, or even most, agencies are. But these questions must be answered.
As mentioned on both Harlow’s Monkey and Borrowed Notes, Ethica has initiated a project “designed to encourage the accurate identification of Vietnamese orphans and to prevent skyrocketing abandonment rates from impacting the future of adoptions from Vietnam.” The jump in the number of “abandonments” should be an immediate red flag. To think some of these might have been staged in order to make things “easier” fills me with such outrage. As someone who’s only recently discovered the tangled web of lies and deception in regards to my own history and identity, I can’t help it.
Even during the days when I thought my history was simply “lost,” I felt its absence like a constant presence in my life. It sounds crazy to say an absence is a presence, but I’m referring to “the void” left by my lack of access. Nothing was something and that something never went away. It wasn’t always a conspicuous part of my conscious mind but it didn’t have to be. The nature of the beast was subtle which made it all the more difficult to understand.
Unknowingly, I’d shaped much of my life around the disconnect. Even more telling was how I’d tried to fill the emptiness. Again, that’s not to say that I attribute everything to the loss, but think it factored in much more than I’d previously thought.
Over time, I tried to come to terms with the loss, but don’t think I ever really did. Coming to terms meant acceptance of its existence which is something I found impossible to do. Acceptance felt like saying my history and identity weren’t important and they were. Not having access to my history or a strong sense of identity only added to my feelings of being apart from my environment rather than being a part of it.
Every illusion I’d construct for myself would eventually fall apart until I had no choice but to pursue the truth. To later learn that my adoptive father had not lost but in fact hidden an important part of my history wreaked havoc on my already weakened sense of self as well as our relationship. Once again, everything I thought I knew about myself was cast into doubt making much of my life feel like a lie. Despite any good intentions he might have had, his decision to hide and manipulate the truth felt like a betrayal.
As Kevin says in his post:
Like I’ve written, time and again, children do not stay children forever. And, one way or another, these children, when they grow older and become adults themselves, will hold their adoptive parents, agencies and foreign governments accountable for those decisions that ultimately affected their lives.
Adoptees have the same fundamental right to know their origins. I can’t stress enough the importance of recognizing that right and ensuring that access to the truth is available when possible. Some may never want to know, but there will be many who will.
Like Jae Ran, I sympathize with the long wait potential adoptive parents must endure but cannot ignore the recent warnings issued by the DOS. Those warnings combined with the jump in “abandonments” in Vietnam to a whopping 85% and the lack of transparency should send up a red flag that should at least be investigated. How can one not be concerned if there is the slightest possibility that a child is being put up for adoption through unethical means?
As history shows in cases like Guatemala, without transparency and tight safeguards the potential for abuse and corruption is high. When I discuss adoptions from Vietnam in regards to my generation and the deception that was sometimes involved, people often explain it away using the “chaos of war.” Vietnam is no longer the “war-torn” country from where I sprung.
Poverty and social pressure seem to have replaced war as the reason for the rise in abandonments. Still, some part of me finds it all a little too convenient. Given the lack of transparency, I think it at least warrants a thorough investigation. It would be sad to see the country of my birth replace Guatemala as the default country to cite during discussions of adoption abuses and corruption.
Related:
Harlow’s Monkey – My Right to Know
Borrowed Notes – Operation Identity
Land of the Not So Calm – Operation Identity and Vietnam Adoptions
I am sympathetic to the need for an adoptee to have information-my own daughter has none. A fact that was created at a government level. At age six she can already articulate that she feels she has been removed from her place of birth against her will. I can’t begin to fathom the grief that will follow in years to come.
Canadians haven’t been able to adopt from Vietnam for five years because of investigations into their practises. Vietnam may well no longer be war torn but the fact remains that children in orphanages there receive only rice for their meals, do not receive any medical care whatsoever and have no hope of being educated enough to pull themselves out of their circumstances. In the face of this overwhelming problem, it seems impossible to change the fate for all the children.
[...] Operation Identity at Ethnically Incorrect Daughter [...]
I have to say as the mom to a Guatemalan child that the comparisson is a little mind boggling. I am well invested as we are awaiting a referral for a Vietnamese child at this point but I think comparing what is going on in Vietnam with Guatemala is naive at best. In Guatemala all babies are relinquished (the abandonment process takes two years or more so some toddlers are abandoned but babies are all relinquished). Their birthmother under goes a DNA test to prove she is their birthmother, at this point I believe it is even two DNA tests. She must come and sign the papers four times to say that yes this is her plan. Every family is given at least one picture of her holding the baby at the DNA test. She has a lengthy interview with a social worker where she must discuss why this is her choice. Honestly, the “corruption” in Guatemala is not what people think it is. The big issue with Guatemala at this point is a political back and forth over the Hague treaty. The USA is not stopping adoptions from Guatemala because they think Guatemala is doing unethical things, but because they are require Guatemala to honor the Hague Treaty. Who is right or wrong in that argument is irrelevant. Guatemala is not wrought with abandoned babies that have no history. When I started the process for Vietnam I was glad to know I would most likely have the same info for this child I have for my other child, now it looks like that may not be the case. That makes me sad, but when you talk about Guatemala and it’s corruption you speak somewhat out of turn. You are comparing things that are not truly comparable.
“Vietnam may well no longer be war torn but the fact remains that children in orphanages there receive only rice for their meals, do not receive any medical care whatsoever and have no hope of being educated enough to pull themselves out of their circumstances.”
Just Jen,
Just to clarify, where did you get your information and do you mean your statement to be taken in the general way in which is was written?
Mary,
I find it amusing and a little disturbing that you consider the comparison naive considering why those safeguards were put in place in the first place.
From the DOS, DECEMBER 2007:
U.S. citizens pursuing adoptions in Guatemala are already encountering some delays in the process. As recently as August 2007, several dozen children who were to be adopted by U.S. citizens were taken into custody by Guatemalan authorities because of alleged irregularities in the adoption process and concerns about the care of the children. After a court-ordered investigation, many of their cases are still pending approval. Prospective adoptive parents face the real possibility that current, pending cases may be disrupted by legal investigations. Several adoption service providers are under investigation in the United States, and at least one U.S. adoption facilitator faces prosecution in the United States.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0912/p01s03-woam.html?page=2
In March, the US State Department said it was concerned that all parties involved were not being protected, including mothers being financially induced to relinquish custody of their children. In August, the US Embassy in Guatemala mandated a second DNA test to finalize the adoption and further safeguard the process.
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-8137241_ITM
One morning last month, a man with a knife kidnapped Sem’s cherubic, curly-haired 2-year-old daughter, Jenifer, as she was returning from the corner store with her 6-year-old brother. After eight days of frantic searching, police found Jenifer in a house with two other stolen children.
They had been swept up in what child advocates say is a black market in babies and toddlers in Guatemala that involves networks of thieves, corrupt doctors, nurses, lawyers, civil registrars and foster-home mothers enticed by the millions of dollars pumped into the country by international adoptions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/879859.stm
I also managed to speak with some of the mothers. These were cases on the books of Casa Alianza, the main children’s charity in Central America, which works with abandoned children on the streets and in orphanages.
The first woman we met was Elivia. When she was pregnant she was kidnapped by a Guatemalan couple and locked up in their house until she gave birth. “I was given drugs to make it quicker and then the baby was pulled out of my stomach. The couple told me I was too poor to be a mother and they were going to put up the baby for adoption.” Elivia’s baby, Pablo, has now been returned to her, thanks to Casa Alianza.
Then there was Ruth, who walked into the Casa Alianza office in Guatemala City when we were there.
There are twenty-thousand unwanted kids in orphanages in Guatemala, and five thousand children living on the streets of the capital. Ruth is one of them. Hardly more than a child herself, she is now also a mother. Her story does not have a happy ending.
“I was breast-feeding my baby and these men drove up to us with guns. They put a pistol to my boyfriend’s head and snatched my baby away. And that’s the last I saw of her. How you can take a woman’s baby away I don’t know. She’s probably abroad now.”
From the DOS, January 2008,
The United States Government stands ready to support Vietnam’s efforts to strengthen and improve accountability in its adoption system and to develop its capacity to regulate adoptions. In some cases, our background investigations have revealed evidence of irregularities, ranging from forged or altered documentation to cases where children have been offered for adoption without the apparent knowledge or consent of their birth parents.
I do believe there is a comparison given the lack of transparency that previously existed in Guatemala and what currently exists in Vietnam. Adoption abuses and corruption did take place in Guatemala. Without the transparency and safeguards that many are calling for, there is a high likelihood that it could take place in Vietnam. I don’t believe I concluded that the US is “stopping adoptions from Guatemala because they think Guatemala is doing unethical things.” My point is that there are lessons to be learned from Guatemala in order to prevent the same kind of abuses from occurring in Vietnam.
You are entitled to your own opinion, but I disagree that I’m speaking out of turn as the two are comparable if you look at the big picture.
“The USA is not stopping adoptions from Guatemala because they think Guatemala is doing unethical things, but because they are require Guatemala to honor the Hague Treaty. Who is right or wrong in that argument is irrelevant.”
If by that you mean it’s irrelevant who is right or wrong over whether the Hague Treaty should be honored, then that makes me really sad.
Just Jen, I too would like to know where you got your assumptions about the conditions at the orphanages in VN. Adoption agencies? Other APs? News accounts? Many children here in the grand ole US of A are malnourished and barely get an education; should that be a justification for taking a whole bunch of them out of their homes and shipping them off to countries in Europe or to Canada?
Mary, I suggest you read the following article by Elizabeth Larsen, an AP of a daughter from Guatemala, if you haven’t already:
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/11/did-i-steal-my-daughter-2.html
Corruption in adoption in both Guatemala and VN may not be rampant [time will tell], but there have been enough red flags raised to create enough suspicion that the DOS is slowing things down to take a second look.
IMHO, anything that jeapordizes the chance for adoptees to simply know who and what they came from and why they were abandoned/relinquished should be eliminated. That’s the least this world could do for them.
Thanks, Sume, for – *clearing throat – speaking out of turn.