The Canadian government has expressed formal concerns to China about claims that Chinese babies are being kidnapped and sold to orphanages for adoption in Canada and other western countries, Canwest News Service has learned.
Canadian Embassy staff in Beijing have asked the chief of the China Centre of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) — the state agency that oversees China's international adoption program — to investigate.
"Chinese authorities are looking into this question," says Janet Nearing, the director of adoption services for the government of Nova Scotia, who says federal officials in Ottawa informed her that embassy staff have held meetings on the subject with Chinese officials.
"(CCAA's) director general has assured the embassy staff that the agency is looking into this matter," says Nearing. "He added that no children adopted by Canadians were (illegally obtained). I don't know what his source of information would be, but that's the information we were given."
Newspapers in China reported in July that dozens of baby girls in the southern Chinese province of Guizhou had been abducted from their families and sold for $3,000 U.S. per child to local orphanages, which in turn adopted the babies out — for similar fees — to couples from North America and Europe.
Last month, the Los Angeles Times also published an investigative article quoting parents in the provinces of Guizhou and Hunan, who said their babies had been stolen, sold and adopted overseas.
"It raises serious concerns, no doubt about it," says Nearing.
Although China levies fines against citizens that have multiple children, it is illegal to seize a child without the parents' consent, or to buy and sell babies.
Reports of corruption in China's international adoption program first surfaced in 2005, but China said it was an isolated incident. New allegations this year prompted one Canadian parent — a mother in Nova Scotia who adopted a Chinese baby in 2006 — to go public this fall with fears that her daughter may not have been a legitimate orphan.
Nearing, who oversees all adoptions in Nova Scotia including those from overseas, calls this year's allegations "very troubling," and says they prompted her to ask Ottawa to look into the matter.
Although adoption is a provincial responsibility, Nearing says provinces have no means of investigating alleged corruption in other countries, or of dealing with foreign governments.
Those matters are handled by the Inter-Country Adoption Services, a branch of the federal Department of Human Resources and Skills Development.
Officials from the department did not respond to requests for details about what embassy staff asked of the Chinese, but Nearing says officials in Ottawa acted quickly this fall to seek information from China.
In the past, China has not responded kindly to questions about alleged corruption within its state-run adoption system.
Canada's own queries of the Chinese government come at an awkward time for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is seeking an invitation from China for an official visit to Beijing, possibly during a scheduled trip to Asia next month.
Nearing says Ottawa and other governments are virtually powerless to verify what Chinese authorities might tell them, calling the foreign-adoption program a matter of "trust" between countries.
She also says she has no way of telling parents who have adopted from China whether their child was abducted, trafficked, or legally obtained.
Despite such problems, Nearing says Canada should wait for more information before imposing a possible moratorium on adoptions from China.
The 2-year-old girl was living in an Ethiopian orphanage, facing poverty, malnutrition and disease. Her birth parents were dead and she was alone.
That was six months ago.
Today, she is smiling and playing at LifePoint Church in Smyrna, and pointing at the preacher.
"That's my daddy,'' said Alyza Kate Hood.
Then she and her 3-year-old sister, Jadyn, from China, ran off to play under the watchful eyes of their parents, the Rev. Pat Hood and his wife, Amy.
The Hoods, like a growing number of Middle Tennessee families, say their faith motivated them to rescue the orphans. They have adopted children from overseas, not because of infertility, but because they believe God wanted them to do it.
The interest in faith-based adoption comes when the number of international adoptions is declining. In 2004, there were 22,911 overseas adoptions in the United States, with 448 in Tennessee, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Last year, there were 17,229, with 367 in Tennessee.
Most of the change is because countries like China and Russia are allowing fewer children to be adopted. Currently, the wait for a child from China is about five years. That's prompted couples to turn to countries like Ethiopia.
"Not everyone is called to adopt," Pat Hood said. "But everyone is called to care for orphans."
Caring for orphans
The idea of rescuing orphans through adoption comes from several factors. First is the sheer numbers. By some accounts, there are 143 million orphans in the world.
Second, there's the Bible. The Old Testament and New Testament teach believers to care for orphans.
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this," reads the book of James, "to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
Then, there's the mission trip factor. The Hoods cite their experience overseas when talking about their decision to adopt.
Amy Hood says she first began thinking about adoption in 2002. At the time, her husband was not interested. "I told Amy I wasn't even going to pray about it," he said.
A high-level delegation from the Adoption Board is in Vietnam to try and expedite 20 adoptions from the country.
The 20 couples involved in the adoptions received letters informing them of the trip. They were told the delegation would be headed by Adoption Board chairman Geoffrey Shannon and include the board’s chief executive, registrar and principal social worker.
‘‘In the situation where these adoptions proceed, it will be the function of the Adoption Board to determine in each case, on the basis of the facts presented, whether to grant that adoption an entry in the register of foreign adoptions," the letter stated.
Ireland’s bilateral adoption agreement with Vietnam lapsed on May 1 after five years in existence. The failure to establish a new agreement has left hundreds of people in an uncertain position. The 20 applications that are the subject of this visit were received in Vietnam before the agreement lapsed.
In total, almost 300 people have been approved to adopt from Vietnam by the Adoption Board, after going through a lengthy approval assessment process.
Minister for Children Barry Andrews has said that Ireland did not renew the adoption agreement with Vietnam because of concerns about adoption procedures there.
While adoption groups and opposition politicians accused Andrews of leaving it too late to reach a new agreement, two UN reports have since raised concerns about the adoption process in Vietnam.
If the government decides against pursuing a new agreement with Vietnam, adoptions will not restart until the Hague Convention on intercountry adoptions is ratified by the Vietnamese government.
It is unlikely to be ratified before 2011,which would leave many Irish couples in limbo. The government said it would consider the reports before making a decision about an agreement with Vietnam.
Under the disguise of gods love,mothers where forced to give up their babies to the Church
For many decades, if not centuries, people thought and believed that the church and their congregations would be the centre of pure Christianity where their sins would be washed of. Premature pregnancy before marriage, even after rape and incest, where seen as acts of sinners. Even though many women where victims of the situations. But the punishment of their deeds in society itself was not enough. Even in monasteries and convents young women where abused, mistreated, even raped. Also young boys and men who ended up in by nuns and priest run schools where the victims of the Catholic orders.
But what many people do not know is, that baby theft and forced relinquishment was part of the catholic scheme of pressure and punishment. Mothers where forced to give up their babies in monasteries for adoption. Centuries women lost their children under supervision of the church and their leaders.
The issue is, that is not an old history alone. It gave birth to export these practices to new catholic orders and missionaries in new countries outside the west. With the decline of members in the western world, the new members in the East and middle Asia became victims of the same practices. South Korea, Vietnam and India are well known examples of these practices and the first waves of children for intercountry adoption with help of congregations and new missionaries.
The stories of the European victims are getting into the open, when will the stories of the other continents follow their tragic and dramatic truth. Interesting detail is that, even though feminism was introduced and equal rights for women was enforced, that at the point of children, some women feel more capable to have children then others and did and do not really care of other mothers loose their babies to them. This astonishing development is not only shocking but also reads that feminism was hiding also a system of class sensitiveness. Meaning, some women are more equal than others.
Kerken al eeuwenlang leverancier van adoptiekinderen
Door Hilbrand W.S. Westra
Het schokkende Ierse‘Ryan Report’ onthult wanpraktijken in kloosters en scholen. Het zwijgt inhoudelijk echter over de ontvreemding (childtrafficking) van duizenden kinderen naar de Verenigde Staten, Engeland en Australië. Tevens wordt er met geen woord gerept over hoe overheden en kerken moedwillig meewerkten aan grootschalige identiteitsfraude en valsheid in geschrifte om deze kinderen ongezien weg te sluizen en op te nemen in ambtelijke bestanden. Het lijkt erop dat de Ieren hun kinderen liever kwijt waren dan rijk. Opvallend in dit perspectief is dan ook, dat momenteel juist Ierland, binnen de Europese Unie, de druk opvoert om sneller grote aantallen interlandelijke adopties te forceren. Met name uit risicolanden als Vietnam. Een land dat recentelijk opnieuw werd geconfronteerd met kinderhandel voor de internationale adoptiemarkt.
Ruth Hopkins beschrijft in dagblad Trouw van 29 juli 2009, over het drama van de ‘Maggies’. Beter bekend als de “Magdalene Sisters” door de gelijknamige film van Peter Mullan. De film, gebaseerd op waar gebeurde feiten, laat een schokkend relaas zien van jonge vrouwen en kinderen die onder het onverbiddelijke regime van nonnen terecht kwamen. Hoe zij werden misbruikt, mishandeld en onder dwang hun kinderen moesten afstaan aan de kerk. Vergelijkbare situaties deden zich ook voor in veel andere Europese landen, de Verenigde Staten, Canada en Australië. Relatief nieuw zijn de berichtgevingen over experimenten met kinderen in deze context.
De gedwongen afstand van kinderen om ze tot wees verklaren of ongeboren te beschouwen, om zodoende te kunnen fungeren voor medische experimenten onder het dak van de Kerk, maar ook staatskindertehuizen, is een terugkerend verschijnsel gebleken in samenhang met de adoptiehistorie. Zo is bekend, dat ten tijde van de massale adopties uit Roemenië, eind jaren negentig, begin deze eeuw - tot waarschijnlijk op de dag van vandaag - zogeheten ‘weeskinderen’ als proefkonijnen werden misbruikt voor wetenschappelijke experimenten die verdacht veel parallellen vertonen met Nazi praktijken gedurende tweede wereldoorlog. Recentelijk kwam een dergelijk bericht ook uit Noord Korea. Een gevluchte Noord Koreaanse officier klapte uit de school over hoe hij zijn geestelijk gehandicapt kind, door de staat tot wees werd verklaard, om te kunnen dienen voor wetenschappelijke experimenten. Het werkt dan ook bevreemdend om te vernemen, dat Amerikaans grootste adoptiebemiddelaar Holt, heimelijk al in Noord Korea actief is, om als ‘preferred supplier’ , de positie die zij al decennia lang inneemt in Zuid Korea, te bestendigen. En dat in een dictatuur die zich niets aantrekt van mensenrechten laats staan die van kinderen. Holt, een christelijk gefinancierd miljoenen bedrijf, heeft haar zinnen gezet op een nieuwe adoptiemarkt wegens de teruggang van het aantal adoptabele kinderen uit China en Zuid Korea.
Opvallend is de samenhang en invloed van christelijk organisaties en adoptie. Wetenschappers als Tobias Hubinette uit Zweden maar ook Kim en Henderson uit de Verenigde Staten, schreven al eerder, dat de grootschalige adopties uit Zuid Korea nooit hadden kunnen bestaan zonder organisaties als Holt en de invloed van de kerken.
Zo schreef ook Carine Hutsebaut, gerechtsdeskundige gespecialiseerd in daderprofilering, in haar boek; ”Kleine zondaars, Kerk en Kinderhandel”, over hoe, met name de katholieke kerk, een goed geoliede machine was waar vrouwen uit België, Nederland en Frankrijk, vaak ongewild, naar afgelegen kloosters werden gebracht om te bevallen om daarna gedwongen afstand te doen van hun kinderen. Deze kinderen, onder andere geboren uit seksuele escapades van paters, pastoren en andere leden van de clerus, werden ´gedistribueerd´ onder de leden van de eigen parochies of die van andere. Deze geheime kinderen werden dan bijgeschreven als eigen kind door de desbetreffende ‘illegale ouders´ waardoor er sprake is van grootschalige fraude in de bevolkingsregistratie. Zo werd Frankrijk enige jaren geleden opnieuw geconfronteerd met verdwenen kinderen door een oproep voor militaire dienst. Doordat de jongens die niet kwamen opdagen, stuitte men op vele zogeheten vermiste of onbekende kinderen, beter bekend onder de naam ´Sous X´. Allen ‘weggeadopteerd’ naar elders. Over het aantal onbekende meisjes maar te zwijgen.
Het is opvallend dat deze onderwerpen slechts altijd voor even opduiken waarna het vaak snel een stille dood sterft. De hoop is nu, dat door de Ierse kwestie, deze zaak ook in de rest van Europa aan het rollen komt. Maar het lijkt erop, dat de mythe van de heiligheid van adoptie en de kerk onaantastbaar is. Het probleem is echter, dat door het verzwijgen van deze praktijken, dergelijke activiteiten gecontinueerd worden. Is het niet onder de vleugels van de kerk, dan wel door die adoptiebemiddelaars die gelieerd zijn aan religieuze organisaties en/of kerkgenootschappen die op hun beurt weer gefinancierd worden door instellingen en banken die direct en/of indirect betrokken zijn bij de farmaceutische en/of medische industrie.
Het is juist deze lobby, hand in hand met het christelijk gedachtegoed, die van grote invloed is gebleken op de grote aantallen geforceerde kindermigraties wereldwijd en de gewelddadige breuk tussen ouders en hun kinderen. Juist deze laatste groep krijgt structureel onvoldoende aandacht. Onder deze duizenden, zo geheten ´gevallen vrouwen´, zitten ongeveer 25.000 Nederlandse moeders die ooit hun kinderen afstonden in kloosters in België, Frankrijk en aan het beruchte Nederlandse instituut, Valkenhorst. Het wordt hoog tijd dat het taboe over de rol van de kerken, de maatschappelijke druk, en daarmee haar mede verantwoordelijkheid - dat verder reikt dan katholieke reflexen zoals Hopkins onterecht stelt in haar artikel – voor de verzwegen geschiedenis van gedwongen afstand in Nederland en elders in de wereld, wordt doorbroken. In de eerste plaats om het leed wat deze vrouwen is aangedaan te erkennen. Maar ook voor de geadopteerden waarvan velen nooit zullen weten dat ze ooit geadopteerd zijn. Tevens is het van groot belang om inzicht te krijgen hoe deze praktijken nu worden voortgezet in veelal niet westerse landen. Waarbij onvrijwillige afstand door moeders, in de context van maatschappelijke en/of socio-economische redenen, door de westerse adoptielobby wordt vermarkt als zijnde een vrije keus.
De noodzaak om deze schrijnende adoptiegeschiedenis recht in de ogen te kijken en een halt toe te roepen aan het gesol met kinderen en diens ouders is hoog. Niet alleen in westerse landen maar ook in de huidige, meer dan honderd, zendende landen. Want uiteindelijk zijn het de getormenteerde geadopteerden en hun ouders die de hoogste prijs betalen voor de hartverscheurende gevolgen van deze bizarre praktijken waarvan de symptomen op persoonlijk niveau steeds meer zichtbaarder worden.
Opvallend in deze, is de doodse stilte van de zogeheten ‘gezegende partij’ die deze kinderen ´adopteerden´. Alle solidariteitsprincipes, die vrouwen vaak zeggen te hebben met hun seksegenoten, gaan plotseling mank. De praktijk, dat de solidariteit van veelal westerse vrouwen en het feminisme ophoudt bij de eigen landsgrenzen en zelfs binnen de eigen gelederen, zonder enig begrip voor met name deze moeders, is ronduit schokkend. Wat uiteindelijk leidt tot de verbijsterende conclusie, dat in de wedloop om kinderen, ogenschijnlijk slechts een leus telt namelijk; “ieder voor zich en God voor ons allen”.
Search a Child, Pay Cash - The Adoption Lobby, the documentary shows the preparation for a world market of children.
Because, a European Adoption Policy would lead that European children will be made available for the international adoption industry. Whereas the European Union asked from Romania to become like other EU countries, and not to export children, now the Adoption Lobby wants to reverse that and to have the whole of Europe to become like Romania was....
The Story looks into how the system of intercountry adoption work and how political pressure is applied to ease the business in children.
Author Roelie Post wants to distance herself from pro and anti-adoption labels and direct the discussion back to the heart of the matter: whether intercountry adoption is a child protection measure, if children have rights in their own country, and if intercountry adoption is ultimately a breach of such rights?
Marineta Ciofu a perdu toute trace de son enfant. Il y a presque 10 années, la femme roumaine issue d'un milieu pauvre avait laissé sa fille illégitime dans une pouponnière - avec la ferme intention de la ramener dès que elle-même serait dans une meilleure situation. Mais soudainement, la jeune fille avait disparu. Presque dix ans plus tard, Marineta apprend la vérité. Son enfant avait été adoptée. En faveur d'une famille américaine.
Donnerstag, 10. September 2009, 14.15 - 15.00 Uhr (Wdh.).
Marineta Ciofu mit ihren drei Söhnen
Marineta Ciofu hat jede Spur von ihrem Kind verloren. Vor fast 10 Jahren musste die Rumänin aus ärmlichen Verhältnissen ihre uneheliche Tochter in einem Babyheim zurückgelassen – mit der festen Absicht, sie zurückzuholen, sobald es ihr selbst besser ginge. Doch plötzlich war das Mädchen verschwunden. Fast zehn Jahre später erfährt Marineta die Wahrheit. Ihr Kind war adoptiert worden. Von einer amerikanischen Familie.
Roelie Post, EU-Beamtin, auf Recherchereise durch Rumänien
Die Geschichte hatte im Grunde 1989 begonnen. Damals kamen die ersten Bilder aus Rumänien - Bilder aus Kinderheimen, die Folterkammern glichen. Halbverhungerte, psychisch gestörte Kinder. Der Westen stand unter Schock, und wollte helfen – egal wie. Zehntausende rumänische Kinder wurden zur Adoption ins Ausland gegeben. Die internationale Kinderwohlfahrt schuf die Mär von den Niemandskindern, die niemand haben wolle in ihrer Heimat.
Rumänien 1989 war der Beginn der „Adoptionsindustrie“ reicher westlicher Länder und für Fälle, wie dem von Marineta Ciofu, deren Kind ohne Ihre Einwilligung verschwand. Sie hat nicht mal das Recht zu erfahren wohin.
die story verfolgt, wie das System der Auslandsadoptionen funktioniert, und wie politisch Druck ausgeübt wird, um das Geschäft mit den Kindern zu erleichtern.
KYRGYZSTAN: PRIME MINISTER CHUDINOV PLEDGES ACTION ON STALLED ADOPTIONS
Laurie Rich: 10/07/09
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Igor Chudinov has promised US legislators that he will urge his country's parliament to expedite the adoptions of 65 Kyrgyz orphans by American families.
The 65 cases have been held up for more than a year amid a Kyrgyz government effort to overhall the legislative framework covering foreign adoptions. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Chudinov met with US Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Bob Casey (D-PA) in late September in Washington to discuss the pending adoptions. The Kyrgyz prime minister was receptive to the legislators' requests that the cases be processed, according to the offices of both senators.
"It is my hope and belief the Prime Minister will work to grandfather in these adoption cases and the families in the United States will be able to proceed with their adoptions," Brownback said in an e-mailed statement to EurasiaNet. "I thank the PM for his willingness to work with us, and I stand ready to help as the process continues."
Chudinov told the senators that upon returning to Kyrgyzstan, he would meet with the members of the Kyrgyz parliamentary committee that is in charge of overhauling adoption procedures. Chudinov pledged that he would tell committee members that there is no need to keep holding up these 65 cases, senator Brownback's office reported.
The Kyrgyz prime minister also agreed to put this pledge in writing, although Senator Brownback's office had not received any documents regarding this as of October 5. The senators said they would follow up on the status in the next few weeks.
Chudinov introduced a moratorium on international adoption in Kyrgyzstan last February, amid allegations of corruption in the system. The Kyrgyz parliament has been working since then to draft new regulations, providing no timeframe for the completion of the process. In-country UNICEF officers who are working with the government on the issue said on October 6 that the legislation and amendments are finished and are under review by different ministries. As soon as the ministries sign off on the amendments, officials promise to allow for public debate on the proposed changes. Only after ample time for public discussion will the legislation be submitted to parliament. That process could take another six months, according to UNICEF.> read more <
SEOUL, South Korea — Four years ago, when she found that she was pregnant by her former boyfriend, Choi Hyong-sook considered abortion. But after she saw the little blip of her baby’s heartbeat on ultrasound images, she could not go through with it.
As her pregnancy advanced, she confided in her elder brother. His reaction would sound familiar to unwed mothers in South Korea. She said he tried to drag her to an abortion clinic. Later, she said, he pressed her to give the child up for adoption.
“My brother said: ‘How can you be so selfish? You can’t do this to our parents,’ ” said Ms. Choi, 37, a hairdresser in Seoul. “But when the adoption agency took my baby away, I felt as if I had thrown him into the trash. It felt as if the earth had stopped turning. I persuaded them to let me reclaim my baby after five days.”
Now, Ms. Choi and other women in her situation are trying to set up the country’s first unwed mothers association to defend their right to raise their own children. It is a small but unusual first step in a society that ostracizes unmarried mothers to such an extent that Koreans often describe things as outrageous by comparing them to “an unmarried woman seeking an excuse to give birth.”
The fledgling group of women — only 40 are involved so far — is striking at one of the great ironies of South Korea. The government and commentators fret over the country’s birthrate, one of the world’s lowest, and deplore South Korea’s international reputation as a baby exporter for foreign adoptions.
Yet each year, social pressure drives thousands of unmarried women to choose between abortion, which is illegal but rampant, and adoption, which is considered socially shameful but is encouraged by the government. The few women who decide to raise a child alone risk a life of poverty and disgrace.
Nearly 90 percent of the 1,250 South Korean children adopted abroad last year, most of them by American couples, were born to unmarried women, according to the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs.
In their campaign, Ms. Choi and the other women have attracted unusual allies. Korean-born adoptees and their foreign families have been returning here in recent years to speak out for the women, who face the same difficulties in today’s South Korea as the adoptees’ birth mothers did decades ago.
One such supporter, Richard Boas, an ophthalmologist from Connecticut who adopted a Korean girl in 1988, said he was helping other Americans adopt foreign children when he visited a social service agency in South Korea in 2006 and began rethinking his “rescue and savior mentality.” There, he encountered a roomful of pregnant women, all unmarried and around 20 years old.
“I looked around and asked myself why these mothers were all giving up their kids,” Dr. Boas said.
“What we see in South Korea today is discrimination against natural mothers and favoring of adoption at the government level,” said Jane Jeong Trenka, 37, a Korean-born adoptee who grew up in Minnesota and now leads Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea, one of two groups organized by Korean adoptees who have returned to their homeland to advocate for the rights of adoptees and unwed mothers. “Culture is not an excuse to abuse human rights.”
In 2007, 7,774 babies were born out of wedlock in South Korea, 1.6 percent of all births. (In the United States, nearly 40 percent of babies born in 2007 had unmarried mothers, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.) Nearly 96 percent of unwed pregnant women in South Korea choose abortion, according to the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs.
Of unmarried women who give birth, about 70 percent are believed to give up their babies for adoption, according to a government-financed survey. In the United States, the figure is 1 percent, the Health and Human Services Department reports.
For years, the South Korean government has worked to reduce overseas adoptions, which peaked at 8,837 in 1985. To increase adoptions at home, it provides subsidies and extra health care benefits for families that adopt, and it designated May 11 as Adoption Day.
It also spends billions of dollars a year to try to reverse the declining birthrate, subsidizing fertility treatments for married couples, for example.
“But we don’t see a campaign for unmarried mothers to raise our own children,” said Lee Mee-kyong, a 33-year-old unwed mother. “Once you become an unwed mom, you’re branded as immoral and a failure. People treat you as if you had committed a crime. You fall to the bottom rung of society.” > read more <
