After barely a week: Unicef ??boss takes a step aside after judicial investigation of child trafficking

UNICEF, the children's rights organization of the United Nations, has a problem. A judicial investigation is being conducted into a non-profit organization in which Bernard Sintobin, the new CEO-ad-interim for Unicef ??Belgium, has been active for years. It is a Walloon adoption agency that is said to have cooperated in child trafficking from Guatemala. The man himself screams his innocence, but Unicef ??has asked him to step aside.

Last Monday, Unicef ??Belgium proudly presented its new general manager. The Malinois Bernard Sintobin (67) temporarily takes over the helm of the organization that defends the rights of children on behalf of the United Nations. However, Unicef ??could now break that decision, because Sintobin appears to be involved in a file about alleged child trafficking.

There is a judicial investigation into a non-profit organization where he was director and treasurer until the end of last year. That has been confirmed by our editors. It concerns the Walloon adoption association "Hacer Puente". He is suspected of having cooperated in child trafficking. Adopted children are said to have been illegally divorced from their biological parents in Guatemala and then given up for adoption to couples in Western countries, including Belgium. The Belgian adoptions went through Hacer Puente. The federal public prosecutor's office received some tips last year and started to dig. The research officially started last month.

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Boss Unicef ??steps aside due to "child trafficking"

Bernard Sintobin, the new CEO of Unicef ??Belgium, has to step aside one week after his appointment. He appears in a federal prosecutor's investigation into the trafficking of children from Guatemala. They were allegedly taken away from their parents and then offered as orphans in our country by a Belgian association. The payments went to the sister-in-law of the then dictator in Guatemala.

The 67-year-old Sintobin was appointed last week as CEO of Unicef ??Belgium, the children's rights organization of the United Nations. He started to combine that with his current position as business manager of Wereldmediahuis, the publisher of global magazine MO. In the meantime, however, the man has been discredited for dealing in children from the third world and he has to step aside again. There is a judicial investigation into a non-profit organization in which Sintobin played a prominent role for years. The federal public prosecutor confirms this.

The non-profit organization Hacer Puente organized adoptions of orphans from Guatemala in the late 80s and early 90s. The Bargoens One program recently brought the testimony of two women who suspect they were taken away from their parents as children and brought to Belgium via this non-profit organization. One of them, Coline Fanon, came to Belgium at the age of one and now, almost thirty years later, found her parents back in Guatemala.

Even in 2014, Guatemala was upside down when a Flemish woman, Dolores Maria Preat, discovered that her mother had not given her away from poverty, but that she had been kidnapped. She also came to our country via Hacer Puente. The Guatemalan who had abducted her at the time was sentenced for this a few years ago.

In good news for couples looking to adopt children, the Women Development and Child Welfare (WD&CW) Department has set itself a target of ensuring 1,000 adoptions this year.

Nearly 1,350 applications for adoption are pending in Andhra Pradesh, it is learnt. The move will benefit hundreds of orphans and half-orphans living in Child Care Institutions (CCIs) in the State.

About 32,000 children are living at more than 900 registered CCIs (shelter homes) in Andhra Pradesh.

A few months ago, officials of the WD&CW and the Juvenile Welfare Department conducted special drives on CCIs and identified about 2,700 children, who were fit for adoption, but were staying at shelter homes for the last few years. Unconfirmed reports state that many unregistered homes were illegally operating as children’s homes, without furnishing any information to the government.

“Every year, we are giving about 120 to 150 children for adoption from 14 Sishu Gruhas, also known as Specialised Adoption Agencies (SAAs), run by the WD&CW Department. Now, we want to place the children staying in CCIs, who are legally fit for adoption, under foster care,” said WD&CW Special Commissioner H. Arun Kumar.

Move will benefit those living in Child Care Institutions

In good news for couples looking to adopt children, the Women Development and Child Welfare (WD&CW) Department has set itself a target of ensuring 1,000 adoptions this year.

Nearly 1,350 applications for adoption are pending in Andhra Pradesh, it is learnt. The move will benefit hundreds of orphans and half-orphans living in Child Care Institutions (CCIs) in the State.

About 32,000 children are living at more than 900 registered CCIs (shelter homes) in Andhra Pradesh.

A few months ago, officials of the WD&CW and the Juvenile Welfare Department conducted special drives on CCIs and identified about 2,700 children, who were fit for adoption, but were staying at shelter homes for the last few years. Unconfirmed reports state that many unregistered homes were illegally operating as children’s homes, without furnishing any information to the government.

The UN Child Rights Committee will meet in Geneva tomorrow until the 31 of this month to review Sri Lanka

under the Optional Protocol on sale of children, while it also reviews Botswana, Cabo Verde, Côte d'Ivoire,

Malta, Singapore, and Tonga.

The above are among the States, parties to the Child Rights Convention and its Optional Protocols, and so are

required to undergo regular reviews on how they are implementing the Committee’s previous

SALEM/NAMAKKAL: The CB-CID police arrested one more nursing assistant from a primary health centre at Sarkar Kollapatty in the city on Friday in connection with the child trafficking case.

K Shanthi, 35, of Sarkar Kollapatty, was arrested based on the information given by the main accused, R Amuthavalli, in the case. Shanthi is working at the primary health centre at Kannankurichi under deputation.

Shanthi was brought to CB-CID office at Nedunchalai Nagar near Suramangalam in the city on Friday evening. With the arrest of Shanthi, the number of accused arrested in the case rose to nine.

Meanwhile, four other accused in the case – Parvin, Hasina, Arulsamy and Murugesan- were produced before the chief judicial magistrate (CJM) of Namakkal district court K Karunanithi on Friday evening. “The CJM ordered to lodge all the four accused under judicial custody until further orders,” said an official of the Namakkal ) district court. Shanthi was also produced before the CJM who remanded her in judicial custody for 15 days.

All the accused were lodged at the central prison in Salem.

To share On Saturday, 17-year-old Thereza De Wannemaeker from Denderleeuw testified in Het Laatste Nieuws about her fraudulent adoption from Ethiopia in 2009. According to the official documents, her biological mother had disappeared and her father had passed away. Later, Thereza discovered that none of that story was true. Over the past few days, the newspaper received another fifteen testimonies regarding suspected adoption fraud. At the center of it all is the adoption agency Ray of Hope (RoH), which collaborated from 1997 to 2017 with an Ethiopian contact person who, according to the testimonies, is completely unreliable. Member of the Flemish Parliament Lorin Parys (N-VA) wants an extra session of the Flemish Parliament regarding the potentially fraudulent adoptions before the elections. He calls for a “thorough and independent investigation”. Flemish Minister of Welfare Jo Vandeurzen is also in favor of such an investigation into past adoption practices. Babyfarms in Sri Lanka That sudden decisiveness leaves Adinda Aelvoet and Priyani Libert, adopted children from Sri Lanka who spoke out in this newspaper a year and a half ago, with a bitter feeling. “Now that elections are approaching, our politicians are springing into action. But when we came out with our adoption story early last year, absolutely nothing happened.” Advertisement On January 27, 2018, Aelvoet and Libert testified in the weekend supplement 'Zeno' about their own adoption from Sri Lanka in the 1980s, which presumably took place fraudulently. During their search for their biological parents, a few years ago they ended up with RoH's local contact person, Sunil Wijewardena, through Kind en Gezin and Steunpunt Adoptie. Between 1997 and 2011, he arranged all 49 adoptions from Sri Lanka for RoH. In the years that followed, the adoption agency also engaged him for 'aftercare'. Adopted children who, like Aelvoet and Libert, were searching for their biological parents were entrusted to Wijewardena. On September 27, 2017, this newspaper revealed that Wijewardena was closely involved in large-scale adoption fraud by the Dutch FLASH Foundation in the 1980s. Of the thousands of Sri Lankan babies adopted in the Netherlands through that adoption agency in the 1980s, the papers for 70 percent turned out to be forged. Children were stolen from their parents and resold for exorbitant sums. Adoption children were even 'bred' on baby farms . At the time, Wijewardena was responsible for transporting FLASH's adoption children. No grounds for an investigation Following our reporting, Lorin Parys asked Vandeurzen for further explanation in the Committee on Welfare, Public Health and Family on 10 October 2017. The Minister replied that there was no indication of fraud and therefore no grounds for an investigation. Adinda Aelvoet: “One of Jo Vandeurzen’s arguments was that, according to him, everything had changed. RoH started in 1994. Vandeurzen stated that at that time, international adoption was regulated much more strictly than in the 1980s. Vandeurzen did not consider it a problem that RoH and Steunpunt Adoptie collaborated with a figure like Wijewardena until at least 2017.” “'There is no objection to a Flemish service collaborating with someone who also collaborates with a Dutch licensed service,' he stated in the Welfare Committee. That 'Dutch licensed service' was Stichting FLASH, which was exposed on Dutch television in the spring of 2017 as a large-scale fraudster in adoptions. The adoption of Thereza De Wannemaeker dates back to 2009. In reality, therefore, absolutely nothing has changed since the 1980s.” Priyani Libert was adopted from Sri Lanka in the 1980s. Priyani Libert was adopted from Sri Lanka in the 1980s.Source Tim Dirven Priyani Libert was adopted in Sri Lanka in 1984 and wanted to search for her biological parents in 2015. “I asked Kind en Gezin for help. They forwarded my file to Ray of Hope, because that adoption agency had a contact person in Sri Lanka specializing in tracing biological parents: Sunil Wijewardena.” In the span of two weeks, he found my alleged biological parents. Kind en Gezin invited me to view Sunil’s investigation. It consisted of a few photos in which my so-called biological parents posed with him. Copies of identity cards or other official documents were missing. “Sunil’s bill amounted to 450 euros, or two Sri Lankan monthly salaries. I paid this through Kind en Gezin. At first, Sunil claimed that my nine new brothers and sisters were aware of my existence. Later, he said they did not know about my existence. A DNA test was dismissed. 'Money' was the only thing my so-called biological parents seemed interested in. At the end of 2016, I broke off all contact.” Adinda Aelvoet: “I find it incomprehensible that both Kind en Gezin and Steunpunt Adoptie continued to work with Sunil Wijewardena of RoH until at least the end of 2017. Perhaps they are still working together, because an official termination was never announced.” “After my particularly bad experiences with Sunil in 2013, I made it clear that he was completely unsuitable for organizing and leading roots trips. He was only after money and tried to manipulate us. The adoption coach at Steunpunt Adoptie said she was appalled by it. Yet no action was taken, and they continued to do business with him. In October 2017, Minister Vandeurzen announced that RoH would have an integrity investigation conducted into Wijewardena. Has that actually taken place, what are the results, and is that man still being called upon? I would like to know.” Chairwoman with two hats A few days after her testimony in this newspaper, Aelvoet received an email from the director of Steunpunt Adoptie. “She offered me follow-up conversations and wrote that she was working on starting a buddy program for adoptees. ‘This comes much too late for me,’ I replied. There was no investigation into my own file: I was expected to provide the evidence of fraud myself first. Which is the world turned upside down, because I want an investigation precisely to find out whether fraud has been committed.” Libert was invited by Kind en Gezin for a meeting. “Flemish Parliament Member Katrien Schryvers (CD&V) was also supposed to be present. She is Chair of the Board of Directors of RoH and Vice-Chair of the Flemish Parliamentary Committee for Welfare, Public Health and Family. I found it strange that, as RoH Chair, she wanted to sit in on my meeting with Kind en Gezin. I got the uncomfortable feeling that they wanted to butter me up. That is why I let that meeting pass me by.” Katrien Schryvers (CD&V) is vice-chair of the Welfare Committee and chair of the board of directors of the contested adoption organization Ray of Hope. Katrien Schryvers (CD&V) is vice-chair of the Welfare Committee and chair of the board of directors of the contested adoption organization Ray of Hope.Source BELGIAN “Because Schryvers is also chairwoman of RoH, she had to briefly pass her gavel to a colleague from the N-VA at that particular committee meeting on October 10, 2017,” Aelvoet notes. “The committee that outlines the adoption policy is therefore co-led by someone who is the chairman of the board of directors of an adoption agency. Isn’t that utterly ridiculous?” “Kind en Gezin suggested having my file scrutinized by the Central Adoption Authority in Sri Lanka, but I have absolutely no confidence in that,” states Libert. “Because that is exactly where things went wrong with my adoption: that Central Authority was one of the players in the fraud. So I would have to have my adoption file investigated by a perpetrator. I politely declined.” Not everyone counts According to Aelvoet and Libert, the problems with adoption in Sri Lanka, Congo, and Ethiopia are not isolated cases. “Just as in the Netherlands, there has been a red line of fraud running here since well into the 1970s,” says Aelvoet. “The Dutch government takes this seriously and has assembled a commission to conduct a thorough investigation into all forms of adoption fraud. Here, following Ethiopia, vague promises are now being made. All that procrastination is a consequence of that close entanglement with politics.” “After our testimonies, we heard many similar stories from acquaintances who were also adopted from Sri Lanka,” says Libert. “But they are afraid of the impact of the media attention. After Ethiopia, we can assume that there is something fishy about even more intercountry adoptions by RoH. Surely that must be investigated at the very least?” “We requested an investigation into all Sri Lanka files and received a flat refusal from the Welfare Committee and Minister Vandeurzen. That hit us hard. Two weeks ago, I had the honor of meeting Michelle Obama in Amsterdam. If I have learned one thing from her, it is that everyone counts. If Minister Vandeurzen does have the Ethiopian adoption files investigated, but ignores the Sri Lankan ones, it will feel to us as if not everyone here counts.” Everything is up in the air. “When the adoption fraud in Sri Lanka came to light a year and a half ago, the ground fell away from under my feet,” says Aelvoet. “As an adopted child, you know little about your origins. When serious adoption fraud comes to light, you become completely destabilized. Because suddenly, everything is up in the air. Your identity becomes a big question mark again.” To protect myself, I tried to put that story behind me. But as long as there is no major investigation into our adoption history, that is difficult. Now there is that news about Ethiopia, and in a few months it might be about adoption fraud from another country. Time and again, we are confronted with it. That is very painful, and I want to spare other adoptees from that. That is why there is a need more than ever for a truth commission on adoption, without taboos. As long as there is no such commission, it will never stop.

Foster care, a system practised throughout the world, is another means by which the adoption scheme is being rejuvenated. The Service Center in Mumbai was the first to place Indian children in foster care in 1971. Foster care, a pet scheme of WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi was legalised in India through the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act, 2014. Until recently, only children in orphanages have been placed for adoption. Abandoned and surrendered children, while they await an adoption home, can also be allocated to foster families. The government provides the foster family with a maximum sum of 2,500 rupees a month. However, one of the criteria on which they are selected is that they are financially comfortable and do not need to rely on the money allotted to them. There is also a provision for group foster care in which a family can provide for more than one child, but no more than two. The families are generally from the middle-, and sometimes even, lower-income bracket. They are responsible for the children’s education, health, food and general well-being. Foster care ends when the child is eighteen but can be extended to twenty-one. The time frame for fostering is almost always unknown; it can be short, medium or long term. The foster family has the first right of adoption after a five-year period and it is only if the child is adopted that he has the same legal rights as a biological child. For children it is preferable to care which has thus far proven to be deleterious both emotionally and mentally for the child.

Among the children who can benefit from the programme are those under seven years of age who have not been adopted after a minimum of one year of being declared legally free for adoption, children whose parents are mentally ill and unable to care for the child, children having one or both parents in jail, children whose parents submit a request to the government asking to surrender their child due to terminal illness and children whose families are temporarily unable to provide for them. The foster parents must be Indian citizens, both above the age of thirty-five and having an income whereby they can provide for the child. They need to be in good health and show proof of not having HIV, TB or Hepatitis B. Lastly, they must be without criminal conviction or indictment.

Since Independence, with increased urbanisation, many Indians have moved from joint families to nuclear ones. Foster care is in a way replacing the role played by extended families. Foster Care India has been the most active organisation in promoting this form of childcare. It is based in Rajasthan and has placed children with success in that area. It has also created consciousness and influenced policymaking. As of now, however, there are some more organisations that place children in foster care: Kerala has fourteen and Maharashtra has eight.

The only stipulation which one can seriously question is why the programme limits itself to children under seven years old when there are so many older children in the same predicament…

According to the Juvenile Justice Act, children who are considered to be distressed fall in one of two categories: those in conflict with the law and those who need care and protection. The act mandates childcare institutions in every district. Yet, many of these homes under the auspices of the federal and state governments and the NGOs are emblematic of abuse, especially of a sexual nature. Children, both male and female, are frequently raped, usually by staff or older boys... A great number of these institutions where sexual abuse has been reported are registered under laws, such as the Societies Registration Act, the Charitable and Religious Trusts Act, the Women and Children Institutions Act, but not under the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act. In fact, many of the homes and orphanages are not registered at all, and thus they avoid government and police inspection. However, Maneka Gandhi appealed to state adoption bodies to ensure that all orphanages were registered under the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, before the end of 2017. She reported that four thousand of the total nine thousand childcare institutions were still not registered under the JJ Act and were thus operating illegally. She also stated that forty thousand boys and girls were abiding in these unregistered homes. Gandhi’s constant attention to these issues will certainly pay off…

Expert panel on adoptions in the making

Parents or children who have doubts about their adoption procedure can have that procedure investigated. In addition, there must also be an in-depth and broader independent investigation into problems with adoptions from the past. To this end, an expert panel will be set up to formulate recommendations for future policy on intercountry adoption. That is what Flemish Minister for Welfare Jo Vandeurzen (CD&V) said in the Welfare Committee following a hearing about possible fraudulent adoptions from Ethiopia. In recent weeks, testimonies have been popping up about possible mistakes, such as parents who were wrongly declared dead or children who had to lie about their age. (belga)

Dutch:

Ouders of kinderen die twijfels hebben over hun adoptieprocedure, kunnen die procedure laten onderzoeken. Daarnaast moet er ook een diepgaand en breder onafhankelijk onderzoek komen naar problemen met adopties uit het verleden. Daarvoor zal een expertenpanel in het leven geroepen worden dat aanbevelingen formuleert voor het toekomstig beleid rond interlandelijke adoptie. Dat heeft Vlaams minister van Welzijn Jo Vandeurzen (CD&V) gezegd in de commissie Welzijn naar aanleiding van een hoorzitting over mogelijk frauduleuze adopties uit Ethiopië. De voorbije weken doken er getuigenissen op over mogelijke fouten, zoals ouders die onterecht dood werden verklaard of kinderen die moesten liegen over hun leeftijd. (belga)

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It is August, and Zimbabwean farmers are preparing for a new growing season. In a sprawling exhibition park in the capital city, tens of thousands have converged for the country’s biggest agriculture show.

But tucked amid the booths showcasing tractors and produce is a display advertising something very different: how to adopt a child.

For the past few years, the country’s Ministry of Public Service, Labour, and Social Welfare has set up a display here in hopes of meeting prospective adopters amid the crowds shopping seed packets and dairy cows.

But it’s slow going. All day, fair visitors stream past the booth without stopping. The issue, officials say, isn’t that Zimbabweans don’t care about abandoned children. Indeed, adoptions within families are so stitched into the culture here that most people don’t even think of them as adoptions at all. But try to convince many Zimbabweans to adopt a child who isn’t related to them, and you quickly hit a wall.

That kind of adoption is “frowned upon by our culture,” says Stanislaus Sanyangowe, the deputy director for child protection services at the ministry. Many Zimbabweans fear that bringing an outsider into your family risks breaking traditional protections afforded by ancestors. Between 2015 and 2018, only 27 children were adopted domestically in the entire country, and 14 more internationally, Mr. Sanyangowe says.