The Government has heard calls from the intercountry adoption sector, particularly adult adoptees, for greater involvement in service design and development. In response to these calls, the Government is holding consultations to ensure that the Intercountry Adoption Family Support Service (ICAFSS) continues to meet the needs of those who have experienced intercountry adoption.

This consultation aims to capture the voices of the intercountry adoption community in the redesign of the service, recognising the significant benefits gained from the involvement of those with lived experience.

To ensure that the ICAFSS continues to meet the needs of the community, we encourage responses to the Discussion Paper from adoptees and their families, prospective adoptive parents, service providers, professionals, academics and other stakeholders.

Supports

If you or a family member need immediate help or counselling, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or beyondblue on 1300 224 636.

Abuses regarding adoption still occur today, the Joustra Committee recently noted. The substantiation of that claim is brief, responds the AdoptieVereniging Gereformeerde Gezindte (AVGG).

"Almost unchanged" is the "fraud-sensitive system" of adoption from abroad, even after the stricter regulations in 1998. That is what the investigation committee states in a letter that Minister Dekker sent to the House of Representatives last week. The list of sources that the researchers included as evidence for their claim has raised eyebrows among adoption organizations.

According to the AVGG, that list shows once again that there is "insufficient basis for the firm decision" to suspend adoption from abroad for the time being, says chairman Martin van Dam. As an example, he cites the “signs of abuse” from South Africa, where his own adopted children come from. The evidence that Joustra provides for this is a series of parliamentary questions that were asked because children from that country were not allowed to be adopted by non-Christian or gay couples. “Improper management,” say the researchers. Van Dam, however, refers to it as a 'normative framework' that has since become obsolete.

Fraud-prone

With the claim that the adoption system is "fraud sensitive", the committee is giving an "incorrect representation" in Van Dam's eyes. He calls the suggestion that adoption creates a market of supply and demand is unjustified. “Abroad people look for a solution for the child, not so much for the parents. For example, one first finds out whether there is a place in the immediate family circle or living environment where the child can go.”

HYDERABAD: As the number of Covid cases are increasing by the day, the city is also witnessing many cases of children losing their parents to Covid-19 and illegal adoptions.

Keeping the situation in mind, Telangana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has urged people to take up adoption only by following legal procedure. It has asked officials to stay alert to curb illegal adoptions.

The Commission has asked all District Collectors to consider it as a high priority task and instruct the authorities concerned to circulate the information on ‘legal adoption’ in all departments, among NGOs and the general public.

Stating that illegal adoptions can result in child trafficking, TSCPCR officials cautioned people not to engage in such practices, and added that there was a systematic process for the same.

An international charity said Thursday that it is investigating allegations of child abuse and fund mismanagement in Africa and Asia, pledging an “uncompromising” probe.

SOS Children’s Villages International supports1.2 million people — mostly children — through more than 550 centres and other programmes around the world, helping orphans and others in need, according to a spokeswoman.

It has found “cases of serious child protection violations and mismanagement”, a manager of the organisation’s founding Austrian branch, Elisabeth Hauser, said in a statement.

Allegations of child mistreatment, including sexual abuse, and fund mismanagement have cropped up in about 20 of the 137 countries where the charity operates, the group’s spokeswoman told AFP.

More than 40,000 people work for the organisation, which was founded more than 70 years ago.

SURVIVORS AND CAMPAIGNERS have criticised how the final report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes deals with the issue of adoption.

The long-awaited report – which was published on Tuesday and can be read here - said the commission found “little evidence” of forced adoption.

The document, spanning 2,865 pages, details the experiences of women and children who lived in 14 mother and baby homes and four county homes between 1922 and 1998.

It acknowledges that mothers often had little choice in terms of adopting their children, but also states that women and girls had “time after the initial placement for adoption to reassess the situation”.

The report notes that private adoption placements were not illegal in Ireland until the late 1990s but such practices “facilitated illegal registrations of birth”. In many cases, a person’s adopted parents were listed as their birth parents on the cert.

Two days after a Meerut-based doctor couple was booked for the alleged kidnapping of a newborn, the initial probe indicated that it could be a case of illegal adoption.

The couple told the police that they had given money for the prenatal and postnatal care of the mother and her baby, said Ganga Ram Punia, SP.

“On the complaint of Jyoti of Kunjpura village, we have registered a case under Sections 363, 368, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 34 of the IPC and Sections 80 and 81 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, against Dr DP Srivastava and his wife Dr Shashibala of Meerut,” the SP added.

“In the initial investigation, it came to the light that it could be a case of illegal adoption, but we are probing all angles. Nobody can take or give money for adopting a child,” he said.

Jyoti had filed a complaint with the Kunjpura police, alleging that the doctor couple had taken her son forcefully on September 14 from her, when he was just four days old.

Mumbai: On Sunday, in a shocking incident, a Mumbai-based doctor held for forging papers to facilitate illegal adoption. As per the news agency report, the city police have arrested the doctor from the Shivaji Nagar area in Mumbai.

While commenting on the incident, Mumbai Police crime branch officials said that, "A probe zeroed in on a Shivaji Nagar based doctor, who had told the couple the child was born in his hospital, despite the birth taking place in Rajasthan," as quoted by the news agency PTI.

As per the report the officials claimed that the investigation had revealed that papers, including the baby boy's birth certificate, seem to be fake in this case.

The report further suggests that the doctor helped to make a fake birth certificate which points out that the boy was born in Mumbai, but the baby boy's birthplace is Rajasthan.

The official further reacted saying efforts are on to question the parents who adopted the child.

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On Tuesday, Jaap Jonkers from Joure presented a petition to the permanent parliamentary committee for Justice and Security, for the preservation of international adoptions. The signatories do not agree with the decision of outgoing minister Sander Dekker to temporarily suspend international adoptions because of previous abuses.

Photo: ANP Photo

With the decision of Minister Dekker, adopted children are victims, say Jonkers and 13,500 other signatories. Jonkers himself was adopted from Bolivia as a little boy.

"The MPs were impressed. It is now up to them to make sure that the minister reconsiders his decision," says Jonkers. "Good questions were asked and compliments given."

Report

WIERDEN/RIJSSEN - Two sisters from Nepal are adopted at a young age by different Dutch families. What is the chance that they will live close to each other in Twente? Sanumaya Lensen (43) and Shanti Tuinstra (44) found each other in Rijssen.

Sanumaya and Shanti were both adopted in 1979 and 1980, but not by the same Dutch parents. It has only been a few years since they officially confirmed that they are biological sisters, after they had a DNA test. "But we already felt it. We were both told that we had a sister in the Netherlands."

Dads knew each other

Sanumaya came to her adoptive parents in Rijssen in December 1979 as a toddler of 1.5 years, Shanti a few months later at the age of 3 in Enschede. “Our fathers knew each other,” says Shanti. “My father worked in Rijssen, and we later moved there too. Every day I cycled past Sanumaya's house on my way to my school in Nijverdal. One day, when it was her birthday, I brought a present.”

Our bond has become much closer since we have proof that we are really sisters, it's magical