New crimes at EU level would include forced marriage, illegal adoption and surrogacy for reproductive exploitation

Broader scope for law enforcement to dismantle criminal organisations

Penalties for companies convicted for trafficking

Ensuring victims are not prosecuted for criminal acts they were coerced into committing

On Thursday, the committees on Women’s Rights and Civil Liberties adopted a draft position on revised rules to combat human trafficking and to help its victims.

- Hey, I just want to know if you're still standing here later today.

A man's voice interrupts my thoughts while I am standing on Jagtvej in Nørrebro waiting for a colleague this Monday morning.

I look up and see a young family man with a child seat on the bike. He looks like someone on his way to work.

After a few seconds it dawns on me what he is actually asking me. And for the rare occasion I get so pissed off that I get nothing but "uh, NO!" before he cycles on in a hurry.

'Land in the wrong family'

CHILD, INTERRUPTED: INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION IN THE CONTEXT OF CANADIAN POLICY ON IMMIGRATION, MULTICULTURALISM, CITIZENSHIP, AND CHILD RIGHTS

On September 17, 2023 the New York Times published an article titled “World’s Largest ‘Baby Exporter’ Confronts Its Painful Past.'” In response, Holt President and CEO Dan Smith wrote a letter to the editor reinforcing Holt’s long-standing commitment to ethical international adoptions. Below you can read this letter as well as a description of Holt’s history and an explanation of our work on behalf of orphaned and vulnerable children around the world.

To the Editor: 

Holt International Children’s Services commends your story titled World’s Largest ‘Baby Exporter’ Confronts Its Painful Past that sheds light on past adoption practices. But it didn’t tell the whole story. 

Holt International Children’s Services, an accredited child placement agency, has advocated for 65 years for stronger and standardized adoption practices worldwide, which led to U.S. adoption in 2008 of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption to ensure the interest of children is given priority. 

Holt has a longstanding commitment to ethical standards that emphasize family-strengthening services that result in children remaining with their birth families. For children without the option of remaining with a birth family, we advocate domestic adoption so children grow and thrive in the culture of their birth. 

The National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons has apprehended the founder of Arrows of God Community Children’s Home, Anambra State, Rev. D.C. Ogo, for illegal child adoption.

A statement on Wednesday issued by Chidinma Ikeanyionwu, the media aide to the Anambra State Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Ify Obinabo, said the ministry handed over Ogo to officials of NAPTIP, two months after busting the “baby factory”.

The activities of the orphanage home were busted in August 2023, by security operatives led by the ministry, following a report by an investigative journalist, ‘Fisayo Soyombo, which uncovered some illegal activities of the facility.

The report which made the rounds on social media and local television stations alleged that the state Ministry of Women and Social Welfare was involved in an illegal adoption of a baby girl alongside one of her registered homes in the state.

Following the development, the orphanage home was sealed and 20 children including a newborn baby, recovered.

Kenya's government will abolish all privately owned orphanages and children's homes within the next eight years, a government minister has said.

Minister of Social Protection Florence Bore said their closure was aimed at ending child trafficking.

She said the children would be placed in family and community care, which offered a better environment for them.

A 2017 UN children's agency report estimated that 40,000 children lived in 811 registered institutions in Kenya.

Data on the number of children in unregistered institutions is unavailable.

When Surat resident Arun Kumar Nikam was not selling vegetables in his teens or early youth, he spent his time writing and crooning songs. The veggie vendor who set up a stall in Surat's vegetable market, has released a Hindi song dedicated to girl child adoption, online. The song, called ‘O Papa' was released online on October 3 and is available on YouTube.

The song

Said Nikam, 36, of his song, "I work as a vegetable seller, but my passion is writing. I have written the lyrics for several songs, and the latest is for the cause of adoption of girls. I think this is truly worthy, giving a little girl a home, and the joy of having parents, a family." Nikam said, "Statistics show that of 11 million abandoned children in India, 90 per cent are girls. When I heard this, I wanted to make a difference. This song: ‘O Papa' are my feelings in melodious form, as music has no borders."

Arun Kumar Nikam selling veggies in Surat

Some of the lyrics of the song go: ‘What is our relationship, I do not know…you called me papa and I was moved, yet bewildered…" The video features a young man, rescuing an abandoned female infant from a stationary rickshaw one monsoon night and handing her over to a home for adoption. She is now a little girl, and he visits her occasionally, sponsors her and when he arrives at the home, she runs to him and calls him: papa'.

New crimes at EU level would include forced marriage, illegal adoption and surrogacy for reproductive exploitation

Broader scope for law enforcement to dismantle criminal organisations

Penalties for companies convicted for trafficking

Ensuring victims are not prosecuted for criminal acts they were coerced into committing

On Thursday, the committees on Women’s Rights and Civil Liberties adopted a draft position on revised rules to combat human trafficking and to help its victims.

To increase search options in countries of origin, pilot projects will be supported by INEA from 2023. This support comes specifically from the services that INEA offers regarding Searches & Country Approach. On Wednesday, September 20, 2023, the first design session of the country-specific pilot project Indonesia took place at INEA.

The pilot process starts with country-specific design sessions. This first Indonesia design session was held to map the current search infrastructure with the aim of improving it. During this session the following eight pillars were discussed:  

1. Legislation and Regulations                                                
2. Technological Tools                                                   
3. Culture                                                                                                                                          
4. Best Practices                                                                                                                       
5. Stakeholders         
6. Group Knowledge                                                    
7. Database/Register                      
8. Remaining Aspects 

The design session

For each pillar, general knowledge, risks and opportunities were brainstormed. The results have been inventoried and processed in a report, which will be shared with the participants of the relevant session. Following this successful meeting, follow-up sessions will be scheduled at a time yet to be determined in order to arrive at a concrete pilot project.   

The letter was written when the woman was approaching her 19th birthday.

A woman shared a heartening letter her adopted mother wrote to her biological mother when she was a teen and it made netizens emotional. The woman named Amy took to microblogging website X, previously Twitter, to share a photo of the letter.

The letter stated, “Amy approaches her 19th birthday. She has matriculated, has her driving license and has grown into a beautiful, colourful and talented young woman. She is becoming increasingly independent. Should she ever make the decision to seek you, I want you to know that I have thought of you often over these 19 years and offered many prayers for you, wishing I could communicate the joy she has been to us…her beauty and her wellbeing.”

Amy’s parents had adopted a boy first who they named Tim. When Tim was three years old, they adopted Amy. “I will always be aware of the pain you will have experienced at the separation from your baby and the enormously unselfish decision you made to have her adopted. There will always be deep gratitude to you for she has given both Derek and I unbelievable pride and joy,” she further wrote in the letter.

“Just found an envelope of my adoption documents, much of which I’d never seen before. This letter from my mom to my birth mother… I am a MESS,” Amy wrote as caption.