YEREVAN/TBILISI, Jan 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A probe into the suspected sale of dozens of Armenian babies to foreign families has left hundreds of women wondering what became of their own lost children in the biggest illegal adoption scandal to hit the former Soviet republic.

Police say a criminal ring tricked mothers out of their newborns in what is the latest smear on a lucrative international adoption market, with growing calls for a total shutdown to end similar abuses.

While the scale of the problem is hard to estimate, child protection experts say high adoption fees of up to $100,000 fan a black market that affects children from India to Uganda.

Anti-slavery groups consider illegal adoptions, when a child is brought to another country in breach of regulations or as a result of wrongdoing, a form of child trafficking.

The scandal in the Caucasus surfaced in November, when authorities revealed that more than 30 children had been sent to Italy for adoption between 2016 and 2018 after their mothers were pressured into giving them up.

Intercountry adoption is a good option for children who cannot be cared for in their own country. This is what Femmie Juffer and Anneke Vinke write in a response to the recent report of the Council for the Application of Criminal Justice and Youth Protection.

A reaction to the report 'Reflection on intercountry adoption' of the Council for the Application of Criminal Justice and Youth Protection. By prof.dr. Femmie Juffer (endowed professor of Adoption Studies) and Dr. Anneke Vinke (chairman of the ADOC Knowledge Center for Adoption and Foster Care).

International scientific research convincingly shows that growing up in a children's home has long-term negative consequences for child development. This concerns all areas of development: the brain, physical growth, attachment, intelligence and school performance, and social-emotional functioning. Children are much better off in a family.

The Netherlands has signed the Hague Adoption Convention, which states that intercountry adoption is a last resort for children who would otherwise have to grow up in a children's home. It must be clear that a child cannot grow up in its own family or in a foster or adoptive family in its own country. Only then is intercountry adoption a responsible option for the child according to the Hague Adoption Convention.

Domestic adoption gets more space

Julienne Mpemba and her lawyers will perhaps finally face the trial judge in a few months in the case of alleged "fraud in the adoption of Congolese children" charged to the Belgian-Congolese by the Belgian justice. So decided on February 16, the council chamber of Dinant. Nine other people, civil servants of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, cited in this file have benefited from a dismissal.

The prospect of appearing before the criminal court suits Julienne Mpemba and her lawyers, who are calm. The case dates back to 2015. Director of the "Tumaini" Orphanage, Julienne Mpemba is asking 8 Belgian couples who have adopted Congolese children to pay the arrears they owe to the Orphanage to ensure the work of childcare workers. and by extension, the good supervision of the 22 other children. While she was within her rights, the sky fell on the director of "Tumaini". Michel Lastchenko, head of the Belgian diplomatic mission in Kinshasa at the time of the events, joins the dance. The Belgian diplomat alerted the Congolese authorities, including the then Minister of Justice, Alexis Thambwe Mwamba. At the request of the Belgian Ambassador,

Quickly, we move from words to deeds. A team of 7 agents (four Congolese policemen and three elements of the security of the Belgian Embassy) will burst into her home, to her great surprise, provided with a warrant to bring doubled that of search. Léon Nema Lemba (Papa Molière), was at that time with Mrs. Mpemba, attended the scene which he also filmed. The investigators sent to Julienne Mpemba had been given the task of finding the children adopted by Belgian parents... The latter was surprised to find that the Belgian agents of the Belgian embassy could afford this in the DRC.

She will be arrested and imprisoned for two days at the Kinshasa-Gombe High Court prosecutor's office. It didn't stop there. She was ordered to hand over the children to the Ambassador in defiance of the work of an entire Congolese team. While the Belgian parents of these children still refused to reimburse the costs of the Orphanage. The Wallonia-Brussels Federation imposed on Ms. Mpemba a sum that did not cover the costs of the children at the orphanage and, moreover, the orphanage was also indebted.

Flashback

A former bookkeeper for an international adoption agency who stole more than $1.6 million from her employer and her own family was sentenced Wednesday to four and a half years in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez said he considered that the fraud spanned about eight years and affected multiple victims. He said he also took into account the COVID-19 pandemic as a mitigating factor when deciding his sentence.

Melodie Ann Eckland, 56, of Hillsboro pleaded guilty to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, filing a false tax return and willfully failing to collect or pay payroll taxes.

She was also ordered to pay more than $1.6 million in restitution.

The illegal scheme was discovered in March 2018, when one of the owners of the Journeys of the Heart adoption and surrogacy agency received a call from a Premier Community Bank representative inquiring about several business checks that had been presented for payment with a signature of the owner that appeared to be forged, according to prosecutors.

Celina Baldwin and Amanda Purvis didn’t realize getting their nails done that afternoon at Perry Nails would change their lives for the better. Looking back, it was fate that brought these two women together upon remembering that day.

Sitting at neighboring booths, it seemed natural to strike up a conversation. Baldwin recalls, “She was next to me at the nail salon and as we were talking, she told me she had adopted kids. Then I said that we were adopting too – that’s how we connected.” Coincidentally, they also came to find out that they lived in the same neighborhood, their houses a stone’s throw from one another.

As the conversation progressed, they realized they shared the same sense of humor, faith, and a passion to see children in loving families.

For the Baldwins, they began to think about the possibility of adopting after trying for several years to have a child on their own. Their decision to look at adopting children from outside the country was heavily influenced by Andy’s sister. At the time, she was volunteering in the Congo and told them about the number of orphans she saw there. “His sister was working in the Congo and alerted us to the orphan crisis. After that, Congo and international adoption went hand in hand for us,” she said.

After choosing to adopt from outside the U.S., the Baldwins expenses began to add up quickly. “The agency you go through can charge you whatever they want. There’s no regulation on what they can make you pay for the adoption,” In addition to paying an agency, once country fees and travel expenses are tacked on, a family can foot a total bill between $15,000 and $60,000.

From 2007-8, I lived in the Marshall Islands, an isolated Pacific island nation. The day before I left, my host uncle came to me in private. "Seven years ago, my daughter was born in the capital. When my wife and I were raising her, an American came to me asking for our baby. Because it is our culture, we agreed. Do you know when she will come back?"

He gave me the name and address of the adoption agency, Journeys of the Heart, whose agent had taken his child. When I returned to the United States I began contacting agency personnel, who did not respond. Each time I wrote, I clearly described the tragic details of the story and asked them to forward my requests for information to the adoptive family. Finally, I received an e-mail from the executive director, Susan Tompkins. She wrote: "Journeys of the Heart does not provide family contact information, as this would be illegal and unethical." I replied that kidnapping was unethical.

In 2002, seven U.S. adoption agencies were working in the Marshall Islands. After a law was passed to prevent corrupt adoption practices, the only agency to receive a license was Journeys of the Heart. Its Web site proudly advertises "Marshall Island (sic) Child Adoption Going Strong." It continues, "The birth mother and her family generally welcome any contact including visits, phone calls or the required letters." As for visits, the island I lived on receives a boat that offloads food every two and a half months. Anybody who has been to the Marshall Islands knows that the majority of people do not have any access to telephones or mail. But for kidnappers, the facts are of no consequence.

The agency's main goal is to get "as many of the world's children out of harm's way as possible." By this logic, it is harmful simply to live in poor countries, which apparently can't approach our own moral and cultural superiority. Thus, any baby living in a poor country is a legitimate target of such supposedly progressive ideals. We can be reminded of a similar humanitarian vision stated by Christopher Columbus: "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending (to Spain) all the slaves that can be sold." It seems the worst aspect of colonialism is still our manifest destiny.

For carrying, bearing, beginning to raise and giving up their infant, the young mother and father received nothing. The reason is simple: for adoption companies, giving birth parents nothing is more profitable than giving them something. This is what happens when children become commodities, and agents are paid based on commission.

https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/f/f/ffa04da5-3b0b-4cd1-ace4-0eccfcc3f959/466DEFF127A1CDFA6998C46D609D30E0.04-17-2014-drc-adoption-letter.pdf

When a couple saw photographs of two boys from Congo, they felt an instant connection and knew they were meant to be a part of the family. But what they weren't prepared for was the long waiting period before finally bringing their sons home.

Adoption is a phenomenal process, enabling couples to complete their families and experience the everlasting joy of parenthood. But sometimes, the legal paperwork and overall process might take longer to complete than expected.

Generally, international adoptions might be more complex than domestic ones because they involve more than one government, caseworkers, and adoption agencies. Astonishingly, that didn't stop one couple from going the extra mile for their children.

THE GROVERS

Jennifer and James Grover from Utah had a family portrait unlike any other. They were happily married with four biological children and three adoptive kids. There was never a dull day in the Grover family, and every moment was filled with their kids' cackles.

To support the viability of intercountry adoption as an option for permanency for children in Finland, the Office of Children’s Issues and the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki sought information from the Finnish Central Authority regarding its legal requirements for the authorization of adoption service providers (ASP), pursuant to Article 12 of the Hague Adoption Convention (Convention).

Finland ratified the Convention on March 27, 1997, and it entered into force on July 1, 1997.

Finnish law requires U.S. ASPs be authorized by the Finnish Adoption Board.

ASPs with questions about the information below or about pursuing authorization in Finland should contact the Finnish Adoption Board, National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (Valvira), P.O. BOX 43, FI-00521, Helsinki, Finland

Phone: +358 295 209 111

The ASBL Tumaini (which means hope in Swahili) was created in Namur to help children living in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a question, first, of allowing children whose parents are deceased or unable to pay school fees to start their schooling and those who have dropped out of school to go back to school.

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The second objective of the association is the adoption of Congolese children abandoned following certain events, including war, in particular, and/or poverty. It was during a stay in her country of origin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, that Julienne Mpemba made a dramatic observation. In his neighborhood, many children do not go to school. In question: the financial impossibility for many of them to pay their school fees. “The Congolese State has disengaged from its obligations with regard to the care of teachers in public schools, a phenomenon which began in 1991, she indicates. The parents then assumed the responsibility of taking the place of the Congolese State by taking charge of the various costs demanded by the school administrators, of where the establishment of the system of support for teachers by parents. This system takes the form of the payment of a premium which varies according to the schools. In recent years, the Congolese state has made considerable efforts. But, in spite of an important intervention of the Government in the sector of education, one notes that many infrastructures are dilapidated, the school material misses, the number of teachers is insufficient”. More than 12 million children (ie more than one child in two), and particularly orphans, still do not have access to school. The second observation made by Julienne is the large number of babies and children abandoned, either because they are orphans, or because they are sick, or because of the poverty in which their parents live. Thus in June 2008, Julienne and eight other volunteers founded the association. The first objective is to help and encourage orphaned and/or poor children in the Congo to continue their studies, and allow them to flourish both physically and intellectually. The association also intervenes in the event of the illness of sponsored children and can extend support activities to parents and families through the micro-credit system. To help them in this task, you can sponsor the studies of a child, become a member of the association or provide financial assistance. In order to raise funds for Congolese children, Tumaini organizes this August 29 a show by Pie Tshibanda "I am not a wizard" at the Salle André Guisset in Namur. Julienne: 0477/88.58.41. www.tumaini.be.

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