The case offers a rare glimpse into the thriving adoption pipeline to the U.S., documented in a Civil Beat investigation in November.

In its toughest criminal action to date to slow a thriving adoption pipeline to the U.S., the Republic of the Marshall Islands has charged a well-known adoption fixer with human trafficking, a potential 15 years prison sentence.

The case centers on a January 2018 incident in which the fixer, Justin Aine, was stopped at the airport in Majuro, the Marshallese capital, just before boarding a plane to the U.S. with two women, one pregnant and the other with a month-old infant in a stroller.

“Black Market Babies,” a Civil Beat investigation published in November, found that Aine has worked with at least two U.S. attorneys to facilitate adoptions of Marshallese children. The court documents in this case do not name any lawyers.

Two Marshallese women alleged to have helped Aine were charged with aiding and abetting human trafficking, with a potential sentence of seven years.

Action taken following complaint to Union Minister Maneka Gandhi

Anantapur Sishu Gruha manager Deepthi was dismissed from service on corruption charges following directions from the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development.

The officer of the Andhra Pradesh Women Development and Child Welfare (WD&CW) department allegedly took bribe from a Canadian woman who came to adopt a baby.

According to sources, the Canadian made an online application for adoption of a female baby from India on the portal of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), Government of India, a few months ago.

For inter-country adoptions, the Authorised Foreign Adoption Agency (AFAA) will prepare a Home Study Report (HSR) on the family details and the reasons for adopting the baby and other particulars and submit a report to CARA. After receiving necessary documents from AFAA and verification, the adoptive parents can choose the baby online and the State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA) of the State concerned will hand over the selected baby to the couple.

Yesterday hit my one month mark since we stepped foot at John Abraham Memorial Bethany Home. (This was supposed to be uploaded on the mark, but it woukdn't have come out as it did).

It's a long one, but this part means the world to me. It was an experience that will stay with me.

The point of our trip to India was to go here and Kodangal to see where I spent my time when I was here. We wanted to explore the life I never knew.

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Before I continue about the trip, during the trip, my mom remembered a video she received from a doctor that visited the orphanage two months before my dad went. She got it transferred to DVD and some photos will compare it from 1999 to now, as well as some other content.

PART 1: CHANGES TO INSTITUTIONALIZATION IN EUROPE

In Bulgaria as with other European Union countries, there is a movement which has been funded by the European Union’s Structural and investment Funds (ESIF) since 2014 to close orphanages and institutions in eight EU Member States (Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania). The goal is to close all governmental institutions by 2022, including those for children with disabilities, by promoting the transition of youth from institutionalization to family-based care.  A pan-European campaign with Eurochild, the Opening Doors for Europe’s Children Campaign has played a key role in securing funding for such child protection reform across Europe and supporting economically disadvantaged families. The reforms will prevent the separation of children from their families and offer high quality alternatives where separation is in the child’s best interests. It is also expected to demonstrate an expenditure to the government that is equal to or less than the current cost of running institutions while providing improved overall outcomes for families and children.

Why is this important to you, a prospective adoptive parent?  Because change bubbling up in the institutionalized orphan population of Europe can mean eventual advantages for your adoptive child in experiencing a more home-like environment while in care, reducing the sometimes ill effects of institutionalization, allowing those children with disabilities more opportunities for social inclusion and focused development, and allowing economically disadvantaged children who should never have to be placed in an orphanage to begin with to reside with their biological parents who can begin to capably support them.

This particular funding is designed to address the plight of hundreds of thousands of children who are growing up in institutional care across Europe and runs through 2020.  Considered a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for these European nations, deinstitutionalization (DI) is considered “the core of building more inclusive, resilient societies.” [February 2015, Opening Doors for Europe’s Children] This EU focus on DI is also active in two Candidate Countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia) and two Neighbourhood Countries (Moldova and Ukraine). Additionally, also involved are 4 additional member states of the European Commission: Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Croatia who also assisted in adopting the EC Recommendation on Investing in Children in 2013.

The Marshall Islands has charged three people with offences relating to the trafficking of babies.

The charges mark the country's first legal move to stop the flow of illegal adoptions of Marshallese babies in the United States.

The three accused are all Marshall Islanders.

Two are from Majuro and the other is resident in Arkansas which is understood to be a popular destination for pregnant Marshallese mothers who adopt out their babies.

The three accused made an initial court appearance this week before Judge Witten Philippo, who scheduled a preliminary hearing for April 12 where arguments will be presented in detail.

"In secondary school, fellow students did the Hitler salute"

There is still a lot of ignorance about adoption. Sisters Maja and Adinda put the finishing touches on the i.

In the adoption debate, it seems like everyone gets a vote, except for the adopted ones themselves. For youth media agency StampMedia, journalist Anouk Torbeyns, himself an adoptive youngster, went looking for that voice. This is the story of Maja and Adinda.

Maja (33) and Adinda (30) are two adoptive sisters from Ghent. At a very young age they were adopted from India and Sri Lanka respectively. Now they feel completely Belgian, but it could also have turned out differently. In their youth, the sisters were regularly confronted with racism.

"If you grow up in the neighborhood of Geraardsbergen, chances are that you will be the only colored person," says Adinda. "In elementary school you hear things like 'you are not allowed to play because you are a brown cow'. In high school I was confronted with students who did the Hitler salute or threw French fries at my head."

Manat (26) is "eternally grateful" to his parents for adopting him

"I have been adopted and I am more than grateful to my adoptive parents. In fact, it is priceless. Thanks mum and dad." This is what the 26-year-old Manat Janmaat writes under an article from RTL News on Facebook about adoption. He shared his story because, according to him, adoption was put in too negative a light.

Yesterday we wrote how the number of adopted children from abroad who end up with Dutch parents continues to fall. According to emeritus professor of adoption René Hoksbergen, it is the result of adoption scandals, better reproduction techniques and more prosperity in former adopting countries.

Hoksbergen argues for a further reduction of foreign adoptions. "The impact of an adoption is large and although there are very good adoptive parents, you remove a child from a large part of his or her identity," Hoksbergen said earlier in Trouw. More than a hundred responses came to our story. Not everyone agreed with the professor.

Reactions

Daily fact. Adoptions, the "child thieves" are not there. The filing that nailed the authority: "groundless complaints and abuse of power

After 5 years the Court of Milan acquits a Milanese non-profit organization (n. Ai.Bi. - Amici dei Bambini) from the accusation of "buying children" in the Congo. The decree of archiving also shows the role played by a piece of the State in crediting accusations "unfounded" to the detriment of the sector, already grappling with nosedive numbers: the Adoption Commission, in the hands of ex-magistrate Della Monica, would have "crossed their institutional powers ", also committing" abuse of power "- subtitles the investigation signed by Thomas Mackinson of" Il Fatto Quodiano ".

In June 2017, Il Fatto Quotidiano, for the first time revealed the absurd plan of the former vice president of CAI, Silvia Della Monica: creating a parallel system of loyal authorized bodies, removing obstacles starting from Ai.Bi ..

Today, March 22nd, the journalist of the Adozioni inquiry, the dark side of the state: change at the top after three years of shadows, poisons and political-judicial conflicts - Thomas Mackinson - traces the 31 pages of motivations exposed by the GIP, Soria Fioretto in the decree of archiving of the investigation for "complete groundlessness of the news of crime" initiated against the leaders of the Amici dei Bambini association on alleged irregularities committed in the carrying out of international adoptions in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

We report the new Thomas Mackinson investigation for Il Fatto Quotidiano "Adoptions, the" child thieves "are not there. The filing that nails the authority: "groundless complaints and abuse of power"

Adoptions, the "child thieves" are not there. The filing that nails the authority: "groundless complaints and abuse of power"

After 5 years the Milan Court acquits a Milanese non-profit organization from the charge of "buying children" in the Congo. The decree of archiving also shows the role played by a piece of the State in crediting accusations "unfounded" against the sector, already grappling with numbers falling: the Adoption Commission, in the hands of the ex-magistrate Della Monica, would have "crossed their institutional powers ", also committing" abuse of power "

Italians are not "Thieves of children". The crime report was unfounded. A few days ago the Court of Milan issued a decree to dismiss the criminal proceedings against the heads of "Aibi - Amici dei bambini", a body in San Giuliano Milanese active in international adoptions in Congo since 2007. They were investigated in 2017 for alleged serious crimes following a series of complaints lodged with the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rome in 2014 by the then Vice President of the International Adoptions Commission, Silvia Della Monica. The investigation was then transferred to Milan for territorial jurisdiction. The association, according to the original hypothesis of Della Monica, had used the money offered as a donation by the aspiring parents to corrupt the Congolese judicial and police authorities to obtain the issue of "adoptability decrees" of minors, which would have been so "Bought" and removed from the legitimate natural families to then be sent to adoptions in reality not needed.

The international scandal was told in episodes by the weekly L’Espresso, starting from a cover with an alarming title: “Thieves of children. Shock investigation "then awarded as" cover of the year ". Three years after that publication and five from the first accusations, the castle of hypothesized crimes proved - in the words of the investigating magistrate Sofia Fioretta - unfounded on the merits: "There are no concrete procedural elements, not even circumstantial, to hypothesize to support in a judgment that AiBi had "paid" the natural parents as compensation to be able to bring their children to adoption ". So for the other very serious accusations, which ranged from the criminal association to the violation of the rules on adoptions, up to the hypothesis of mistreatment.

The decree of no place to proceed, which we publish in full (DOWNLOAD), is important because, in addition to rehabilitating the defendants and the Milanese body, it raises the adoption sector from a shameful shadow cast for years without a founded reason. On a sector already grappling with dive numbers compared to the past. The decision that archives a long season of poisons gives us a glimpse of the responsibility of a piece of the State, that International Adoption Commission (CAI) that the legislator has placed directly under the umbrella of the Presidency of the Council, so high and delicate is the sphere of rights which had to protect, together with the legality in the adoption procedures. Well, the decree today tells how from that position, instead, a black page was written in which the public authority "went beyond its institutional powers and committed an abuse of power". Thus writes the magistrate on page 22 of the decree.

Garage sales are not unusual in Western Branch. However, Caroline and Kirk Kalmbacher are seeking to shrink the contents of their home to grow their family.

The Kalmbachers have organized a garage, yard, and pop-up bake sale on March 30 and March 31 to raise the money to adopt a child, ideally two, from India.

They set their hearts on adopting a child from India in 2017 and have been going through the complicated and costly adoption process for almost a year.

Kirk Kalmbacher works for the U.S. Coast Guard in Yorktown. He found out about Indian adoptions from a colleague who went through the process.

“We had thought about China and many other countries," Caroline Kalmbacher said. "We had never thought of India."