XI - Romania Bans Foreign Adoption

EU forces Romania into ban on foreign adoptions







 By Harry de Quetteville, Balkans Correspondent

12:01AM BST 17 Jun 2004





Romania has effectively banned adoption of its orphans by foreign nationals after threats from the European Union.


The EU considers the process open to abuse, rife with corruption and that it is sometimes a cover for child trafficking on behalf of paedophiles.


Brussels warned that Romania's hopes of joining the EU in 2007 could be derailed unless the adoption issue was tackled.


Romania has finally passed a law banning foreign adoptions except by the child's grandparents, and then only after every effort has been made to place it with a Romanian family.


Thousands of American couples who have flocked to Romania to adopt since the collapse of communism in 1989 will be disappointed.


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America's ambassador to Bucharest described the law as a "tragedy", which would bar thousands of childless couples legitimately providing some of Romania's 40,000 orphans with a high standard of living in the US.

But Emma Nicholson, the EU observer for Romania, has described the practice as kidnapping.

Sonia Botezatu, Romania's under-secretary for child protection and adoption, said that after the dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu was executed in 1989, the adoption system was unregulated and awash with corruption.

"There was lots of money changing hands, and foreign adoption associations received a certain number of children depending on how much money they paid," she said.

The sale of children abroad was suspended in 2000, but according to Miss Botezatu, many foreign adoption agencies simply bypassed local authorities, offering cash directly to impoverished parents.

"The United States more than anywhere has fed expectations of potential adoptive parents," she said