Today it could take only a few months before Italian adoptive families willing to adopt internationally can bring Cambodian children home

A lady took Jane to Kammpong Thom Orphanage by car when she was just a few days old. No, someone found Jane abandoned between two factories near the Monivong Bridge in Phnom Penh. Not yet, her mother died a few hours after her birth and no one came to claim her at the hospital.

These are the three stories that a Dutch adoptive mother, Meta Meulenbelt-Hörz, heard about the discovery of her adopted daughter Jane, a fictional name. No one knows which of these stories is the true one.

“They knew there was something left unsaid about our daughter's story, but we never managed to find out the truth,” said Ms. Meta Meulenbelt-Hörz.

Jane is now 21 years old and lives in the Netherlands with her adoptive parents and her Chinese adoptive brother. And she is just one of thousands of Cambodian children who, between 1980 and 2010, were given up for international adoption.

Three months after the drowning of a 16-year-old adopted girl, the ex-gratia award by the special relief commissioner has split two families to such an extent that the biological parents launched an indefinite hunger strike on Thursday in front of the Community Health Center (CHC) at Rajnagar, demanding death certificate of their daughter to attain eligibility for compensation.

Namita, 16, was the biological daughter of Ranjan Mai and Rupali Mai of Ostia village. The couple also has two sons. Namita was legally adopted as a daughter of a couple Ratnakar Das and Mamata Das of Gopaljewpatana village under Rajnagar block. Namita is mentioned as the daughter of Ratnakar and Mamata in Aadhaar card and school admission register.

The feuding natural and adoptive parents of Namita reached a flashpoint following claim and counter-claims by both the warring parents. As a result, the Rs 4 lakh cheque is yet to be issued by anybody’s name. The medical officer of the Community Health Center at Rajnagar will issue the death certificate of Namita carrying the names of the deceased’s parents.

After getting the death certificate, we will provide the amount to the parents of Namita. The legally eligible parents will be awarded Rs 4 lakh ex-gratia compensation as drowning has been declared as a state-specific disaster, said Ashiwini Kumar Bhuyan, Tehasildar of Rajnagar.

After examining relevant documents and consulting government officials and pleaders, we will issue the death certificate of Namita, said Rashmi Ranjan Mohanty, the Medical Officer of CHC, Rajnagar.

Four Croatian couples were arrested for a second time at an airport in Zambia on suspicion of child trafficking after coming to adopt four children from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Eight Croats were arrested for a second time on Tuesday at Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport in Ndola, the third largest city in Zambia, after coming to the country to pick up four children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo last year to adopt.

They were initially arrested on December 9 last year at the airport in Ndola as they attempted to leave the country with the children and accused of attempted child trafficking.

But the court in Ndola dismissed the indictment against the eight Croats, Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman told reporters on January 6.

On Monday they were ordered to leave Zambia within 48 hours, Croatian news agency HINA reported.

For several weeks, Croatia has been in the middle of an international scandal due to four Croatian couples accused of child trafficking. Among them are the transgender councilor of the Mozemo party, Noah Kraljevi?, who was born as a woman, and Zoran Suboši?, the guitarist of Hladni piva.

The representatives of the government are dancing on eggshells, and the mainstream media mitigates the fact that the couples cheated the legal provisions of both Croatia and the DR Congo in order to satisfy their desire for children, regardless of the best interests of those same children!

Without taking into account the safety and best interests of four traumatized children, the youngest of whom is only 15 months old and the other three are 3 years old, the croatian mainstream media tries to present the participants in illegal adoption as heroes instead of using all their strength to expose the mafia network through which they were these couples ended up 'adopting' children, and the gray areas and loopholes in the law when it comes to international adoptions that this case revealed.

What person or couple could get away with such a scandalous act without being a member of the radical left establishment? None! And rightly so!

What is happening in Croatia is the twilight of investigative and free journalism, and it is over the backs of the youngest! All for the purpose of protecting members and sympathizers of the radical left-wing party MOŽEMO, self-proclaimed defenders of human rights!

The State has discontinued a case in which eight Croatian nationals were charged with attempted child trafficking on the Zambian territory after they allegedly adopted four juveniles from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last December.

Meanwhile, Zambian authorities have ordered the eight discharged Croatians to leave the country within 48 hours.

State advocate Mahape Libakeni, who made the application on Monday morning, stated that the matter was discontinued pursuant to section 88(a) of the Criminal Procedure Code chapter 87 of the laws of Zambia.

“This matter was coming up for continued trial, however the people are discontinuing it,” he said in the Ndola Magistrates Court.

In response, lawyers from the Legal Aid Board representing the eight Croatian nationals did not object to the application from the state.

Bareilly: In 2019, she was found abandoned in an earthen pot, having survived the night, and got the name "miracle baby" (the court addressed her only as ‘S’). Later, in December 2022, some right-wing activists lodged an FIR against the orphanage in Bareilly and a Malta-based couple that adopted her, charging them with "wrongful conversion” and alleged that the orphanage staff had changed the baby’s faith and made her an Aadhaar card with a “new Christian name”. Thereafter, theDelhi HC in December directed the UP government "not to harass the orphanage staff and stop the proceedings under the unlawful conversion law in the FIR". It also directed the UP administration “not to create hurdles in the baby’s adoption process or her journey to Malta with her adoptive parents.” However, now the nephew of former BJP MLA Pappu Bhartaul aka Rajesh Mishra, Amit, has approached the Supreme Court seeking “cancellation of the adoption of the miracle baby” as he alleged “there are discrepancies in the adoption process”. He said, “The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) doesn’t share complete information about the children on their website and special preference is given to parents from European countries.” Amit’s advocate Shraddha Saxena said, “My client wanted to adopt the girl in question but her details are not listed on the CARA website. As of now, the SC has held the adoption process and ordered that the girl shall remain at the place where she is residing.”The next date of hearing in the matter is February 6.

License holders

Since 1989 in the Netherlands an organization that mediates in adoption has

been obliged to apply for a permit. Although there has been talk of a licensing

system since 1980, this was only introduced in 1989 with the “Wet Adoption of

Foreign Children for Adoption” (WOBKA). Only after 1989, therefore, there are

Flemish Minister of Welfare, Public Health and Family Hilde Crevits is strengthening care and guidance during adoption and is investing 425,000 euros in this. The aim is to make society more aware of intercountry adoption and also to offer more opportunities for the exchange of experiences between first parents, adoptive parents and fellow sufferers. The guidance process when adoptees go in search of their origin will also be strengthened. In this way, Minister Crevits meets some of the recommendations of a 'care and guidance' working group that was set up in response to the final report of the expert panel on intercountry adoption.

“A great job has been done by all those involved to provide us with very concrete proposals for better care and supervision of adoption. We will ensure that there are more opportunities to exchange experiences and to strengthen knowledge about adoption into education and assistance. In this way we want to avoid that those involved in adoption, foster care and other forms of growing up outside the original family are sometimes approached on the basis of erroneous assumptions or social ideas, which could lead to new and avoidable difficulties. In addition, it is also important that people can share their positive stories and their concerns. The question “who am I” and “where do I come from” sooner or later preoccupies every adoptee. We are therefore strengthening the ancestry center in order to provide even better assistance to people who are looking for their roots or close relatives.” –Flemish Minister of Welfare and Public Health Hilde Crevits

The final report of an expert panel on intercountry adoption in mid-2021 gave rise to a number of recommendations for reforms within the adoption landscape. The Flemish Government then set the guidelines for the future of intercountry adoption. This is also followed by Growing up. An important theme is better care and guidance. A working group led by Professor Nicole Vliegen set to work on this and provided very concrete recommendations, some of which Minister Crevits wants to implement immediately.

A better understanding of adoption

Minister Crevits has instructed the Adoption Support Center to further deepen knowledge about adoption in Flanders. The theme of adoption must be more strongly embedded in education and assistance, among other things, so that teachers and care providers can deal more sensitively with questions from children and young people with an adoption story. With the resources, the Adoption Support Center will be able to recruit additional employees who, together with adoptees, will introduce professionals to certain sensitivities specific to adopted children and specific themes such as racism and diversity through training and workshops. In this way, therapists and primary care providers, among others, can better pick up signals when they come into contact with them in the event of a request for help.

More than a decade after Cambodia banned inter-country adoption over human trafficking and corruption allegations, Italy is inching closer to resuming the practice amidst widespread concerns about lack of adequate child protection measures

WRITTEN BY:

avatar-Beatrice Siviero

BEATRICE SIVIERO

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PUNE: The process of issuing final adoption orders to prospective adoptive parents has come to a standstill in Maharashtra since January 11, a day after Bombay high court stayed implementation of a notification authorizing district collectors to pass such orders.

Child adoption agencies said the move has further delayed issuance of the final adoption order to prospective parents in waiting since September last year, after the amended Juvenile Justice Rules were notified.

The notification of the 'Model Amendment Rules 2022' to implement the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2021, which came into force on September 1 last year, empowered district collectors to issue adoption orders, which were till then the domain of the district courts.

However, after the HC order stayed the new rules' implementation in January this year, adoption agencies have been unable to obtain adoption orders for prospective adoptive parents.

Prajakta Kulkarni, founder of Snehankur Adoption Centre, told TOI, "We have 13 older children currently in foster care with their prospective parents, who have been waiting for the final adoption order since September 2022. The absence of an adoption order is affecting various processes, such as preventing the parents from getting the child's birth certificate required for admitting him/her into a school or get Aadhaar made."