AP Exclusive: US report alleges baby-selling, corruption in adoptions from Vietnam
By BEN STOCKING Associated Press Writer
HANOI, Vietnam Apr 24, 2008 (AP)Vietnam has failed to police its adoption system, allowing corruption, fraud and baby-selling to flourish, the U.S. Embassy says in a new report obtained by The Associated Press.
The nine-page document describes brokers scouring villages for babies, hospitals selling infants whose mothers cannot pay their bills, and a grandmother giving away her grandchild — without telling the child’s mother.
“I’m shocked and deeply troubled by the worst of the worst cases,” said Jonathan Aloisi, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi.
Vietnam’s top adoption official called the concerns “groundless.” Bribery of orphanage officials may occur, but serious offenses such as baby-selling or kidnapping are not a problem, said Vu Duc Long, director of the Department of International Adoptions.
The dispute comes amid a boom in adoptions from Vietnam. Americans — including actress Angelina Jolie — adopted more than 1,200 Vietnamese children over the 18 months ending March 31. In 2007, adoptions surged more than 400 percent from a year earlier, with 828 Vietnamese children adopted by American families.
While China remains the most popular overseas country for adoptions, a growing number of Americans are looking to Vietnam, which has fewer restrictions. The wait for adoption approval has also gotten longer in China after authorities there tightened rules.
U.S. adoption agencies active in Vietnam said that despite some cases of wrongdoing, most adoptions in the country are ethical.
“Our experience has been a good one,” said Susan Cox, vice president of public policy with Holt International Children’s Services, based in Eugene, Ore., which has operated in Vietnam since the 1970s. “We are concerned about any unethical practices, but I would not agree that these cases are indicative of adoptions in Vietnam.”
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Many people involved in Vietnamese adoptions strictly adhere to adoption laws, U.S. officials say.
But others have been flooding the system with cash to get babies for American parents, who pay up to $25,000 for an adoption.
With 42 U.S. adoption agencies licensed in Vietnam, the competition for babies is intense.
Some agencies have been paying orphanage directors $10,000 per referral, the report says, and some have taken orphanage directors on shopping sprees and junkets to the United States in return for a steady flow of babies.
“Adoption service providers have reported that cash and in-kind donations have been diverted by orphanage officials and used to finance personal property, private cars, jewelry, and in one case, a commercial real estate development,” the report says.
Aloisi gave the AP a list of 10 particularly egregious cases, including the grandmother who gave away her grandchild.
The mother, working in another province for several weeks, had left the baby with her mother-in-law. She returned to discover the baby had been given up for adoption. Eventually, she got the baby back after U.S. officials uncovered the ruse during investigations as part of the U.S, visa approval process.
In another case, a baby was allegedly taken by hospital officials and turned over for adoption because the mother couldn’t afford to pay her $750 hospital bill.
Hospital officials had inflated the bill, claiming the child had serious health problems. U.S. Embassy officials say they discovered the child was healthy. Again, the child was returned to its birth mother.
The report also says some orphanages have pressured birth mothers to give up their babies in return for about $450 — nearly a year’s salary for many.
The problems have prompted U.S. officials to seek revisions before renewing the adoption agreement, including DNA tests for birth mothers and permission to conduct surprise investigations in provinces arranging U.S. adoptions.
