The teenager, now aged 17, was sold at birth via a middleman to adoptive parents who died when he was 4, leaving him orphaned

After an online search he traced his birth parents, but shortly after meeting them they told him to cease contact as they had new families

A young man in China who was sold by his parents at birth tracked them down last month, only to be abandoned by them again.

Liu Xuezhou, a 17-year-old college student in Hebei province, northern China, reunited with his birth parents a few weeks ago after he launched an online search, but was told they did not wish to maintain contact shortly after their reunion, the teenager said on social media.

Liu was sold by his birth parents in 2005 to his adoptive parents via a middleman and was subsequently orphaned at age four when his new parents were killed in an accident. He said neither his birth father nor mother would accept him as they had divorced after selling him and each had a new family.

What might become of pregnant people in states with little-to-no access to abortion and religious ties in many of their adoption agencies?

“I don’t think I had any real option. When you go into these homes you’re not going in with any options.”

My grandmother’s voice is shaky on the phone. It is the first time I’m asking her about how she relinquished her parental rights to her son, Joseph, in the early 1960s at a “home for unwed mothers.” She was not showing signs of her pregnancy until her last month, she tells me, which is another way of saying that she wasn’t ushered into the home earlier to be kept hidden.

“It was shortly after the child was born that you were in there signing papers. Within hours,” she says. “The biggest emotion was getting to hold him, and then after having to sign the paperwork, it was depression.” She describes stories she remembered of people getting an abortion and dying, of unsafe and unregulated pills, conditions, or practices. When I ask her if she would’ve gotten an abortion if they had been available and safer back then, she says, “Absolutely.”

Adoption rates have declined since the Baby Scoop Era, a period that began in the mid-1940s and concluded with the Roe v. Wade ruling issued 49 years ago this week. A time plagued by stigmas around single parenthood and premarital sex, and little-to-no access to contraception and abortion, the Baby Scoop Era ushered many birth-givers into wedlock, shame, fear, and danger. Many were sent to convents or homes for unwed mothers, where they were kept until they gave birth, an event that ultimately ended with a coerced or forced adoption.

Gurgaon: A day after cops arrested two more members of the child trafficking gang, investigators said on Monday that it bought newborns from couples from humble backgrounds and sold the infants to a community of street performers in Rajasthan for Rs 1.5 lakh (girls) to Rs 4 lakh (boys).

The community members, police said, would train the children from an early age for street performances like walking on the rope. The girls, after a certain age, were sold to people as brides. This was revealed by the gang leader after his arrest by the police.

On Sunday, cops nabbed Kulwant Singh from Delhi and Anil from Alwar in Rajasthan, bringing the total number of arrests to 11. Kulwant, the investigators said, was the mastermind of the gang while Anil was responsible for arranging possible clients for the infants.

To date, police have recovered three infants, two girls barely a month-old and a four-month-old boy. “We are trying to find out details of children sold,” said ACP (crime) Preet Pal Sangwan. “The gang members, during interrogation, told us they used to sell the infants to a community of street performers in Rajasthan.”

Cops said many more members of the gang are still at large. The accused, during interrogation, told cops that they had no knowledge of the current locations of the children sold by them.

In Flanders, 46 children were adopted last year, 27 of which were through so-called intercountry adoption. This is apparent from figures that Belga has requested from Kind en Gezin.

While nearly 30 children were adopted through domestic adoption in 2017, that number has fallen below 20 in recent years. Last year, nineteen children, including twins, were placed with eighteen adopters.

In 2021, 27 children were also placed with a family in Flanders through the mediation of an intercountry adoption service. It concerns children from nine countries of origin: the Philippines, Thailand, Chile, South Africa, Hungary, Portugal, Togo, Burkina Faso and Morocco.

The number of foreign adoptions has also been affected by the corona pandemic in recent years. For example, no air traffic was possible with a number of countries of origin and the adoption could not always be legally confirmed, because some foreign courts were closed, so that the actual adoption had to be postponed.

Future screening

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Police are on high alert after a number of child trafficking cases have been reported. The police had arrested four members, including the mother of a 10-month-old baby, when they were trying to sell it to a couple in Andhra Pradesh for a huge sum.

Police arrested an agent Thanakam on Friday based on the information provided by the four people who were arrested.

Thankam has four cases of child trafficking against her and is a habitual offender and has national-level networks, according to police.

While there are several processes of adoption in the state with approved legal procedures, the sidestepping of these laws and making children available through the illegal route is getting rampant in the state.

A senior police officer with the Tamil Nadu Police while speaking to IANS said, “The child traffickers are getting the support from some ambulance drivers, testing laboratories and even government hospitals on women who are aborting their pregnancy due to social reasons and in some cases due to physical issues. These women are convinced by the child trafficking network to give birth to the child and the child is then bought for a paltry sum and sold at a higher price. We are in the process of cracking this racket and have got valuable tips. However, we cannot provide more information now.”

Ranchi: Police have identified the woman who sold a baby boy for Rs 22,000 to one Nikhat Parveen and are going to record her statement, sources said on Saturday.

Parveen, who is a resident of Mumbai, was detained at Birsa Munda International Airport on Thursday while she was trying to board an Indigo flight with the baby, whom she had bought in Sonahatu area of Ranchi.

A case was registered against her under Juvenile Justice act at the anti-human trafficking unit and she was forwarded to jail on Friday.

Kotwali officer-in-charge Shaliendra Prasad said, “Both the buyer and seller of the infant committed a crime. However, the statement of woman who sold the child has to be recorded before taking further action. Preliminary information suggests that she is from a poor family.”

Meanwhile, Sanjay Mishra who has worked with the government to rescue a number of children from trafficking, said, “Ever since the Central Adoption Resource Authority was formed, elaborate measures are to be followed before a child is adopted. Due to the intricate procedures, there is a long list of people waiting for adopting a child. The applicants are made to wait even for several years. Under such circumstances, some people using money to adopt a child.”

https://www.pravo.unizg.hr/_download/repository/Elisabeth_Ward.pdf

Ricki Mudd is a young girl sitting on the back of a bicycle–in front of her, an unidentified man pedals; above her, an umbrella shields them from the rain. The stranger, she later learns, is her father.

Cut to: an orphanage. Ricki’s stomach is empty; the hunger drives her to steal baby milk powder. Whack! She’s caught–a flurry of brooms and pain follow.

These are the sole memories of China that Mudd carried with her to the United States after a White American couple adopted her when she was nearly five. For the rest of her childhood, Ricki would be raised in SeaTac, Washington, the daughter of Bill and Wendy Mudd and the sister of eight siblings.

Mudd struggled to adapt to life in the US. Though the conditions of her previous environment were unknown, it was clear that she had physical and psychological issues from her past. Rotten teeth and an eye disorder were quickly fixed, but healing her mental health would prove to be a longer journey.

“I was diagnosed with ADHD and on antidepressants in my single digits” says Mudd, who saw a psychiatrist, therapist, and the school counselor to work through these issues. “I think all of that support collectively helped me regain my footing,” she says. “My parents here have done so much for me, and I just have so much love for them.”

UPDATERTL and producer ITV have decided not to broadcast The Voice of Holland for the time being. The channel reports that allegations of sexually transgressive behavior and abuse of power have been received and wants to get to the bottom of what exactly is going on. Band leader Jeroen Rietbergen confesses his involvement and resigns immediately.

'On Wednesday, January 12, the editors of the BNNVARA program BOOS sent us an email with allegations of sexually transgressive behavior and abuse of power surrounding The Voice of Holland . The allegations are very serious and shocking and were not known to RTL," RTL said.

The channel has decided in joint consultation with the producer of the singing program to temporarily shut down The Voice of Holland . Rietbergen was extensively featured in the third episode, as could already be seen on Videoland. "On the basis of these allegations, producer ITV has been contacted and a mutual agreement has been reached that ITV will immediately initiate a diligent, independent investigation. We take this extremely seriously. Participants, employees, everyone must be able to work in complete safety. There is no room for interpretation in this. The priority now is to get the facts on the table.'

ITV said it was shocked by the allegations. “Our highest priority is to provide a safe and supportive environment for everyone who participates in – or works on – our shows and ITV Studios has a zero-tolerance policy towards the kind of behavior it is said to be. occurred."

Confession

This article is the 30th in a series about Koreans adopted abroad. Apparently, many Koreans never expected that the children they had sent away through adoption would return as adults with questions about their true identity and origins. However, thousands of adoptees visit Korea each year. Once they rediscover this country, it becomes a turning point in their lives. We should embrace the dialogue with adoptees to discover the path to recovering our collective humanity. ? ED.

By Lee Kyung-eun

In early summer of 2021, I sat with The Korea Times' digital content editor. We had met on the terrace of a small cafe in Seoul to discuss starting a new column series. That warm and sunny day stands out because it was the first moment this series' journey began.

Since 2017, a few like-minded individuals and I have been devising different ways to bring greater public attention to the need for fundamental changes in the laws and policies related to child protection and adoptees' access to origins. Despite our attempts, we fell short of achieving a meaningful impact on Korean society. These memories lingered in my mind as I spoke with the editor.

Although a number of adoptees' accounts had been published over the years, I felt that the missing element was a common thread weaving these individuals' narratives together. While each adoptee delivered a captivating story, they shared one collective experience ? being sent away by a system designed and maintained by Korea for seven decades. I wanted to give space to adoptees to talk about their experiences but to also incorporate broader discussions, a dialogue, on the underpinning laws and policies that affect these experiences. And most importantly, I wanted to frame adoptees' grievances for what they truly represented ? human rights violations.