State Secretary for European Affairs George Ciamba meets with Simon Mordue, Head of Dir. A Strategy and Turkey, DG Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Commission

On June 10th, 2015, State Secretary for European Affairs George Ciamba met with Simon Mordue, Head of Dir. A Strategy and Turkey, DG Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations of the European Commission, on a visit in Bucharest.

They discussed topical subjects on the European agenda which at this time engage in-depth reflection and discussion in the European Union, such as developments in the Eastern Neighborhood, the ongoing review of the European Neighborhood Policy, EU enlargement and relations between the EU and Turkey.

They also had a wide exchange on the main challenges facing the European Union and its Member States such as migration, as a multifaceted subject in terms of adopting an approach that agrees with the European values and the principle of solidarity; they also discussed the development in a substantive, differentiated manner of the relation between the EU and partners in its vicinity. Also approached were the current debate in the UK concerning its EU future, and economic developments in the EU from the perspective of developments in Greece.

As regards the Eastern Neighborhood the two officials underlined the complexity of strategic challenges in the region, seeing the implications of the current security situation, and the need to have a uniform EU approach and a collective effort to bring security and stability needed to reinstate normalcy in the region. They noted the importance of seeing progress in implementing the Association Agreements (AA/DCFTA) with the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia, so the signatory states can receive the full range of benefits those agreements bring.

NEW DELHI: Civil society organisation Save the Children expressed its concern about the growing number of children who lost their parents to Covid-19 in the country. The growing number of pleas to adopt orphaned children circulating on social media which have left them vulnerable to trafficking and abuse, it pointed out.

While some children who lost their parents are taken in by relatives or guardians, others were left to fend for themselves, putting them at risk of child trafficking. Save the Children urged people not to share details about orphaned children online, and instead to contact 1098- helpline to protect children from falling prey to child traffickers.

In order to prevent illegal adoptions, hospitals have reportedly been told to take declarations from sick parents, to confirm who their children should go to in case of their deaths, the civil society organisation pointed out. The organisation has been receiving around 80 distress calls from children in Rajasthan alone where it runs a helpline with the state commission. The helplines provide psychosocial support and redirect cases of children who need protection to the concerned authorities.

“Children who lose their caregivers and left to fend for themselves are extremely vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, and we’re doing everything we can to protect them from falling victim to illegal adoption or trafficking,” said Sanjay Sharma, deputy programmes director, Save the Children.

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In the wake of experts warning that the possible third wave of pandemic will affect children, the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) has recommended that the State government form task forces involving paediatricians at the district level.

In a letter addressed to the Chief Secretary, the commission has asked that infrastructure be put in place to treat children before the next wave strikes. This includes reservation of beds for children in both government and private hospitals.

The committee has also asked the State government to form supervisory committees to protect the rights of children who have lost both their parents owing to COVID-19.

“There are many cases of children losing both their parents in the State. Because of the lockdown it is becoming difficult to protect the rights of those children. There are chances of them becoming victims of human trafficking, illegal adoption, and others,” stated the commission in the letter, adding that hospitals should be established along the lines of those launched by the Maharashtra government to treat orphaned children.

It also underscored the need to form a supervisory committee at both the district and the State levels. Members of the supervisory committee should include officers from the Women and Child Development, the Education, the Social Welfare, the Health and Family Welfare Departments, the police, and others.

They left for India a fortnight ago. The mission of Simonetta Filippini and her husband Enzo Galli was a mission of love: to take their two-year-old daughter, just adopted and, after having completed the procedures for adoption, to return to Italy. That love mission has turned into a nightmare for the Florentine couple. Left for India 15 days ago with the International Adoption association of Florence for an international adoption together with 70 other Italians, the couple who lives in the province of Florence, in Campi Bisenzio, asks for help to be able to return from New Delhi . The woman tested positive for Covid, which is why she was first taken to the hospital and is now in a health hotel while her husband is in a hotel with the 2-year-old child she had up for adoption. The story is told by The Nation to which wife and husband, Simonetta Filippini and her husband Enzo Galli, explained what is happening.

The adoption process took place in a very short time. No boarding, however, then on the plane that should have brought them home : «Wednesday morning - says Enzo - Simonetta tested positive at Covid while I» and the child «were negative. At that point the situation precipitated ». Simonetta was taken to the hospital and then transferred to a Covid hotel, returning reachable by phone. «I was in a room of two meters by two meters with seven people - his words reported in the newspaper - and some died before my eyes. Our policy provides for the possibility of a quota flight and the embassy and the government must help us ».

Then, reached on the phone by Corriere Fiorentino , Mrs. Simonetta added: "I saw dead people lying on the floor in the corridors of the hospital, I saw panting bodies on makeshift stretchers, I saw corpses burning on the sidewalks and in the parks of New Delhi, I stayed in a two-by-two-meter hospital room with other people with Covid. Here is the apocalypse, horror movie scenes are experienced every day, please help us get back to Italy ».

«From the hotel windows - says Enzo - we see that the corpses of the dead of Covid are burning in the street. It is impressive and we are concerned. We have all been separated, with us there are couples from various areas of Italy and also have children in need of care in Italy. We have the permit exit from the Indian state to get out but they don't let us leave: staying here waiting for a negative buffer means making us die. Outside there is the smell of death and it is indescribable ». The Italian embassy in India took action by identifying the hypothesis of the Air France New Delhi Paris flight but the Indian authorities would not decide to take positive foreign people on board.

"Currently, the situation of the lady and her husband Enzo Galli is complicated, but under control," says Andrea Zoletto, general manager of International Adoption, the association that followed the couple . "We are constantly in contact with Mr. Galli - explains Zoletto -, he and the child are in a 5-star hotel in absolute safety and are well. The lady is in a health hotel, in a room with another person. This morning, thanks to the doctor of the Italian embassy, ??he was able to do another swab, the result is expected in 48 hours: if it is negative, the ambassador guarantees boarding on a KLM or Air France flight, but if it is positive he will have to stay there at least ten days, the Indian authorities are extremely strict on this ». If it is positive, the next tampon should be done in 8 days, during which time the woman will remain in the facility. To complicate the situation, according to what has been learned, there are also problems of understanding by language and "unfortunately their companion, one of our men - adds Zoletto - was stuck with the lockdown and can only provide remote assistance". However, the situation seems to be calmer thanks to the intervention of the embassy. "The consul hears from her husband several times a day - confirms Zoletto - I must say that the Italian authorities provide maximum assistance". «When the gentlemen left - said Zoletto - the situation in India was not so dramatic:« It is suddenly mentioned and we have blocked everything. The other couples are returning because no one tested positive ».

The fun starts when the interview ends. Jim Cockburn has sat through a two-hour inquisition.

There’s been laughter aplenty. There’s also been more self-analysis in an afternoon than this exceptionally successful businessman is used to in a year. From the airy confines of his light, minimalist, Edwardian office, the man who single-handedly transformed the fostering system not just in the UK but around the world has reflected on his improbably successfully career. It began in the West Midlands and saw him make tens of millions of pounds.

Having opened newsagents, the worst thing he ever did, he went on to buy supreme race horses in a bid to win the Derby. Having started with nothing he built a business and bought out his fellow directors for £25 million. He’s lost large sums of money on failed ventures, the inevitable misdirected punt on Chinese imports among them, while generating considerable wealth that has bought him a valuable collection of contemporary art and two stunning homes.

When we get to the end of the interview, Jim’s shoulders relax. “Have you seen the Tipton Monkey?” he asks. I shake my head in apology. I’ve not. “Have you? He’s brilliant.” We’ve spent two hours talking about protecting children from abuse, dozens of business ventures and art. But at the end there’s a swell of relief as he gets back to the banter he loves.

“It’s hilarious,” he says, describing a YouTube video of a Black Country man whose face is converted through the magic of computer software to that of a monkey. “He says he’s been in Dudley Zoo for years but he goes home every night, to Tipton. He loves living in Tipton. He doesn’t stay in the zoo overnight, he just turns up each day to make a few quid from the punters then he goes home.”

The investigation into forced adoption between 1956 and 1984 has ended in painful embarrassment. The advocate of the Dutch Distance Mother Foundation has stated its confidence in the investigation led by the outgoing Minister for Legal Protection Sander Dekker.

Dekker admitted last summer that mistakes had been made in the investigation and apologized for this. Stories of children and parents who have had to deal with forced adoption turned out not to be safe at the 'registration point' that was set up for them. A committee was set up to see what went wrong, but now that the mothers have not heard anything for months, the measure is full for them. The DNA Foundation is even pushing for a parliamentary inquiry to expose the errors.

Researchers estimate that it concerns about 15,000 Dutch children who were handed over to an adoptive family during this period. This often happened under great pressure, for example because their mothers were not married or were still minors. Committing an abortion was not an option at the time.

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I have chosen to not disclose the identities of my sources, in order to protect them from possible retaliation. All of the people that I spoke to are children’s rights advocates working in the region. Apart from working as a freelance writer, I also work as a children’s rights advocate in Uganda. In this piece, I’m not sharing any information that hasn’t already been put out there publicly by Alicia Marie Harding herself.

The current situation

After writing about the Melanie Brechlin case a few weeks ago, I was recently informed about another possible adoption case in Zambia, by a children’s rights advocate in my circles. Again, the ‘adoption journey’ in question is being chronicled on a public Instagram profile — as is often the case.

On September 10 2020, Alicia Marie Harding published an Instagram post in which she announced that she and her family would be fostering a pair of newborn twins in Zambia. In an accompanying blog post that she wrote (which can be found here, on her blog girlgoestoafrica.com), Harding — who works as a missionary nurse — told her followers about how she was working at the clinic one day, when she received a call from a medical officer of a nearby district. The medical officer described an emergency situation in which a mother had just given birth to twins. The mother had passed away after giving birth, leaving behind a total of 8 children. There was no capacity for the family to also look after two vulnerable newborns, who had been welcomed into the world at just 36 weeks old.

Harding wrote about how the twins would live with them for the foreseeable future, but immediately stressed that they would want to eventually adopt the children — if the twins’ family would comply.

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Representative image

In the midst of cries for oxygen, hospital beds and emergency drugs on social media, a desperate appeal that stopped people in their thumb scrolling tracks a fortnight ago was a message urging families to adopt two girls — one aged three days and another six months — with the claim that they had lost their parents recently to Covid. “Please help these kids get a new life, spread the word,” urged the post that quickly went viral.

Such emotional pleas for adoption of children orphaned by the virus have surfaced over the past few days. And though these forwards may be well intentioned, the request is unlawful and could even put a child in danger of being sold or trafficked.

Being a mother is not just a relation but an emotion. This Mother’s Day we got in touch with Bollywood choreographer, Shabina Khan, who is currently in news for her latest work, ‘Dil De Diya’ from Radhe. The idea was to shift the limelight from her personal achievements to something she seldom speaks about: her personal life, motherhood and adoption. Excerpts from the interview:

Adoption is a great choice but our society still has inhibitions about it. When you were making the decision, did this bother you?

Everybody knows that a good deed, is a good deed. But not everyone has the courage to do it. I was very young around 9–10-year-old when I told my mother that I will adopt 5 girls. The reason behind the number was that we're five siblings, so I always told her that I'll adopt 5 girls. My mother asked me if I don't want my kids. To which I replied: I want my kids, but that shouldn't stop me from adopting. That's a different thing. I'll have my child, with my adopted babies and will raise them equally. This is a true symbol of humanity.

I met lot of people who believe in adoption. I've also seen families who are blessed with a child after an adoption, and they raise both kids equally. After I adopted my first baby, the joy that she brought to us was hard to describe in words. At the same time, me and my husband both felt that we had so much more love to give, and wanted to give a family to another child. That's when we adopted my son. My two kids now share an unbreakable sibling bond, and are the pride and joy of our lives.

What is that one message you would like to give it to people who want to adopt?

Nagpur: Any person sympathetically taking part in adoption of orphans, whether the parents died due to Covid or otherwise,

may face serious legal implications if the norms are not followed. Any adoption without a court order is bracketed as a ‘crime’

under at least three different laws.The latest advisory has been issued by the Maharashtra State Child Protection Society,

operating under the women and child development department, alerting against participating in any adoption through

messages seeking support or shelter for Covid orphans.