By Abiud Ochieng

Adoption in the country has, for a long time, remained an emotive issue.

It has often been steeped in suspicion and matters have not been helped by a moratorium on inter-country adoptions (adoption of a Kenyan child by foreigners who live outside the country) placed by the government.

The objective of the moratorium effected on November 26, 2014, was to enable the government to intervene and conduct a comprehensive audit of the policy and legal frameworks, processes, procedures and players involved in the practice of adoption.

WEAK LAWS

For many Brazilians today, the dictatorship is seen as something to be commemorated. Rosângela's story must oblige us to never forget. Español

Rosângela Paraná felt a shiver surge through her body as she watched the protesters gather, their signs reading: “Congratulations, military. Thanks to you Brazil will never be Cuba”, or “There was no coup, only popular uprising”.

For Rosângela and many other Brazilians who were victims of the military dictatorship, especially the more than 20,000 victims of torture and family members of the 434 murdered or forced into dissappearance, the protests in favour of the dictatorship last Sunday are a chilling reminder that the ghosts of the past have yet to be appeased.

Paraná recounts her story, fearing what Brazil has become today: “I feel incomplete. Everything that happened to me was a product of human wickedness, and that’s terrifying”. She was kidnapped as a baby, and illegally adopted by a family with links to the military in 1963. Her adoptive father falsified her birth certificate and never revealed anything about her biological parents.

She is one of 19 cases that have recently come to light, due to the investigative work of Brazilian journalist, Eduardo Reina. His work tells of the kidnappings of babies and children of left-wing activists that were later adopted illegally by military families. Only now in 2019, 34 years after the fall of the dictatorship, these stories are becoming public knowledge..

The viewers of the last police call from Rostock received the most astonishing information in the credits: 850 children and young people from Germany are currently being housed in foster families abroad. Is that correct?

Berlin. More than seven million viewers watched the Rostock “Polizeiruf 110” on Sunday. The investigators' new case entitled "Child Welfare" was a tough one: it involved the murder of a private children's home operator and the placement of German foster children in EU countries such as Poland.

The astonishing information in the credits: 850 children and young people from Germany are currently being housed in foster families abroad.

22 Flemish babies were given up for adoption last year

In 2018, 22 children in Flanders were ceded for adoption and adopted by other Flemish families. This is according to figures from Adoptiehuis, which mediates in all Flemish inland adoptions. Two of the children came from the foundling slider. In two cases, the mother finally returned to her steps. Het Nieuwsblad and Het Belang van Limburg report this today.

Adoptiehuis guides women who become unwantedly pregnant and seek a solution for their unborn baby. Last year, 73 women approached the organization. Seventeen of them decided after supervision and consultation to give their child up for adoption. The majority of the women had Belgian nationality, and for the majority it was a first pregnancy.

Of the 56 other women, the majority decided to keep the child, or they found a different solution. "We are not looking for adoptions," explains director Iris Vandeborre. “We are trying to find a solution. Adoption is the last link in youth care. In addition, Adoptiehuis was only called in by the hospital for five other children on the day of birth.

Two mothers eventually returned to their steps within two months - the legal reflection time.

22 Flemish babies were given up for adoption last year

In 2018, 22 children in Flanders were ceded for adoption and adopted by other Flemish families. This is according to figures from Adoptiehuis, which mediates in all Flemish inland adoptions. Two of the children came from the foundling slider. In two cases, the mother finally returned to her steps. Het Nieuwsblad and Het Belang van Limburg report this today.

Adoptiehuis guides women who become unwantedly pregnant and seek a solution for their unborn baby. Last year, 73 women approached the organization. Seventeen of them decided after supervision and consultation to give their child up for adoption. The majority of the women had Belgian nationality, and for the majority it was a first pregnancy.

Of the 56 other women, the majority decided to keep the child, or they found a different solution. "We are not looking for adoptions," explains director Iris Vandeborre. “We are trying to find a solution. Adoption is the last link in youth care. In addition, Adoptiehuis was only called in by the hospital for five other children on the day of birth.

Two mothers eventually returned to their steps within two months - the legal reflection time.

A court in Berlin has sentenced two people, living in Greece and accused of trafficking minors, to almost two years on probation. The Asian couple, however, only played a small role in a major trafficking ring, the court found.

The couple reportedly started to illegally bring children into Germany in November 2018, using their eight-year-old son's identity documents to pass the trafficked children off as their own at passport control at Berlin's Tegel airport.

After four successful instances, Bangladeshi-born Kader A. and his Indonesian wife Helena S. failed and were arrested at Tegel Airport during their last attempt in January 2019.

They told the court on Wednesday that they had reportedly been recruited by a major human trafficking ring based in Athens after their tailoring business in Athens had tanked, leaving them in severe debt. They also revealed that they were offered €1,500 each time they trafficked a minor.

Small cogs in big wheel

Michel apologizes to the children of the colony

Prime Minister Michel apologizes tomorrow for the way our country has treated hundreds of metis. "The ultimate recognition of an injustice."

"Everything passes, except the past," says sociologist Luc Huyse. During a ceremony in the Chamber on Thursday, Prime Minister Charles Michel would like to apologize for the harrowing way in which the Belgian government has treated hundreds of metis. These are children who were born in the late 40s and 50s in Congo, Rwanda or Burundi from a relationship between a Belgian colonial and a native woman. On the eve of independence, the state systematically took those children away from the mother and sent them to Belgium to be raised in orphanages or with adoptive parents.

The stories are simply poignant. The children did not automatically acquire Belgian nationality - often they remained stateless - and were immediately separated from their mother and any brothers and sisters. A vast majority of fathers refused to acknowledge the children. Metissen is still looking for possible relatives in Africa. But mothers too have spent their entire lives searching for the children who had been taken from them.

Third-rate Belgian

Baby trade in Sri Lanka: Controversial broker has placed children in Aargau

The Confederation and the cantons have to investigate adoption practice in the 1980s.

Switzerland has to work up a dark chapter. The federal parliament has sent a postulate about a year ago, which asks to investigate the placement of children from Sri Lanka in the 1980s. The Federal Office of Justice now has one more year to fulfill the demands of the postulate. Because the cantons were responsible for the supervision of the adoption mediators in the 1980s, the federal government relies on their assistance to find out more about the adoption practice at that time.

Canton is waiting

In the canton of Aargau, the responsible Department of Economics and the Interior confirms that it has been informed by the Federal Government about the subject. "So far we have not received a specific order," says spokesman Samuel Helbling. "But we are in the process of scouring our dossiers so that we are ready when the federal government comes up with concrete questions."

Heather Franklin could spend at least seven years in prison for her role in conspiring with her husband, Ernest, to murder their 16-year-old adopted son, Jeffrey.

The couple tried to conceal the killing by setting fire to their Chenango County home.

On Tuesday, the day before her trial was set to begin, Heather Franklin pleaded guilty in Chenango County Court to felony counts of first-degree manslaughter, third-degree arson and tampering with physical evidence.

She's facing consecutive prison terms for all three charges, which could add up to 11 years behind bars.

The Chenango County District Attorney's Office argued Ernest and Heather Franklin hatched a plot to kill their 16-year-old disabled son after watching the Oscar-winning film "Manchester by the Sea" the night of Feb. 28, 2017. The film tells the story of a man who accidentally sets a fire that kills his children. He wasn’t prosecuted.

Press release

Are officials in the process of abolishing international adoption in Denmark?

The association Adoption & Samfund fears that this is happening!

In a recently published terms of reference for a study of an economically viable model in the adoption area, it appears that officials from the National Board of Appeal (AST) and the Ministry of Children and Social Affairs must draft proposals for a new model for international adoption.

The proposal must be formulated without any form of involvement of adopters and adopters and according to the terms of reference of the commission only with a very limited involvement of other stakeholders. The officials from AST, who primarily take decisions in appeals and in addition conduct financial and legal oversight of the Danish intermediary organization, DIA, Danish International Adoption, have absolutely no practical experience with the extremely important adoption work. This work takes place with great integrity in a close collaboration and in trusting and respectful dialogue with the countries, authorities and organizations from which the adopted children come, including with the deepest understanding of the child's origin, biological genus, etc.