Monday 22 November 2000

Mafia of international adoptions

Romanian children - good export goods 

The mafia of international adoptions For years, a real trafficking of children has been taking place on the territory of Romania, under the guise of international adoptions. Several million dollars are earned annually from these businesses, many of them suffering from corruption. 

We will present you two concrete cases of adoptions in which methods were used that can be cataloged in the most blind terms as dubious. At their center are two foundations, "Irene" and "Stuart", which claim to "protect the child through adoption", both led by lawyer Elena Bustea. 

She obtained at least two children for adoption, based on more than strange medical certificates. The cases are under the attention of the police, but until now they have not been completed. Moreover, the two policemen who orchestrated them, col. Marian Stanciu and Capt. Adrian Barascu, were disciplined and moved from the IGP to the Capital Police. A healthy child receives the diagnosis of "dystrophy grade III". Institutionalized children are under the care of the Romanian Government, which takes care of them through the Romanian Committee for Adoptions (CRA). A "child protection" foundation can mediate an adoption only if it is accredited by the CRA.

Subject:

Intro and request for info

From:

Judi Kloper <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Visite du Vice Premier Ministre et Ministre de la Justice de Roumanie au Bureau Permanent de la Conférence de La Haye de droit international privé

nov171999

Le 17 novembre 1999, le Vice Premier Ministre et Ministre de la Justice de la Roumanie, Son Excellence M. Valeriu Stoica, a rendu visite au Bureau Permanent de la Conférence. M. Stoica était accompagné, entre autres, par Son Excellence M. Mihnea Motoc, Ambassadeur de Roumanie aux Pays-Bas, ainsi que par Mme Cristina Luzescu, Directrice des Relations internationales au Ministère de la Justice de Roumanie. Le Ministère de la Justice des Pays-Bas a été représenté par M. Lukács, Conseiller.
A notamment été évoquée la possibilité pour la Roumanie d'adhérer à un certain nombre de Conventions de La Haye. De plus, le Ministère de la Justice de la Roumanie souhaite renforcer la collaboration entre les Autorités roumaines et le Bureau Permanent en vue d'examiner le fonctionnement pratique de certaines Conventions déjà en vigueur pour la Roumanie.

THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD IN INTERNAL AND INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTION

Children's charity Barnardo's has launched a hard-hitting advertising campaign which aims to give its old-fashioned image an overhaul.

The adverts depict children in "adult" situations such as being homeless, using drugs, being in prison or being on the point of committing suicide.

[ image: The campaign puts children in

The campaign puts children in "adult" situations, for example, showing them homeless

They are linked to a new website and video, which shows case histories of the kind of children the charity deals with every day.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee:

Thank you for the opportunity to address you today regarding implementation of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, currently under consideration for ratification by the U.S. Senate. I thank you for holding these hearings to explore how the United States might best implement the Convention and provide its protections to children who would benefit from intercountry adoption and to the parents who are adopting them.

I am the Hague Convention Policy Coordinator for the Joint Council on International Children’s Services, the nation’s oldest and largest affiliation of state-licensed, not-for-profit child welfare agencies serving children through intercountry adoption. The Joint Council’s 130 member agencies provide services in an estimated three-quarters of all intercountry adoptions to the United States. I also was a member of the U.S. delegation to the meetings at the Hague that prepared the Convention in 1992 and 1993, where I represented the interests of adoptive and prospective adoptive parents when I was Executive Director of Adoptive Families of America. I myself am the lucky mother of a daughter adopted from Korea 24 years ago when she was an infant.

Joint Council calls for U.S. ratification of the Hague Convention.

THE UNDERGROUND

Report #4 from Bucharest Romania

October 19, 1999

We left Timisoura Monday morning for Bucharest 800 km away. In Bucharest we visited Sue and Ron Bates. The Bates are from Texas and are in their fifties and have lived in Bucharest for eight years. They arrived soon after the execution of Ceaucescu and his wife in 1989. It is now believed that Ceaucescu killed three million Romanians during his reign. At the time of his death he was building a Palace at a cost of two billion dollars.

The Bates live in the ghettos of Bucharest and have been working with the street children of the city. There are thousands of children living in the underground heating tunnels and sewers of Bucharest. The "Street Children" are very reticent to enter any program. Many have been abandoned because their family could not feed them or were told if you leave we’ll have more food for the rest. Many are children raised in orphanages and set free at age eighteen, some lived in very abusive homes and some came from homeless families. What Ron and Sue have found themselves doing is taking in the babies of the "Street Children". Babies do not survive in the underground and the young parents, often living as husband and wife, love their children and want something better than the underground. The Bates now have twelve infants and children living with them. Some of the parents of the children visit daily. [See Through Flori’s Eyes]. I had the privilege to interview several young girls: Michaela, Gabi, Lalela, Cadria, Florina, Stefana, and Bianca about their lives, how they came to live in the underground and what their lives are like there.

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By

BRYAN GILMER

With children grown up and living elsewhere, a Tarpon Springs couple are starting round two of raising kids, adopting four Russian girls.

Five-year-old Yulia Casson wears overalls embroidered with Tigger, Piglet and Winnie the Pooh. Glittery butterfly clips pinch bunches of her wispy blond hair.

The Sunset Hills Elementary School kindergartener gives her mom a 20-second barrage of kisses on the cheek, then disappears into the back yard to play.