Romania’s orphans claim years of abuse

September 24, 2006

Romania’s orphans claim years of abuse

Bob Graham, Brasov, Romania

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A GROUP of Romanian orphans who were approved for adoption by western families have claimed that their lives were devastated by the Romanian government’s ban on overseas adoption. Instead of growing up in the West, they remained in an orphanage where, they allege, they were sexually abused and beaten.

The disturbing testimony of 11 teenagers centres on a private institution in the town of Brasov. The claims are being investigated by police and Romania’s National Authority for the Protection of Children’s Rights.

The children’s complaints were sent last week to members of the European parliament to coincide with an imminent decision on Romania’s entry to the European Union. Child protection has become a key issue for Romania’s entry, although it is expected to learn this week that it will be able to join in January under strict conditions.

The complaints have shocked those who have read them, including child protection workers in Brasov, where the £2.5m Poiana Soarelui education complex, home to 66 children, opened in 1994.

In a series of interviews with The Sunday Times, Romanian ministers, orphanage directors and other officials all acknowledged serious failings in the country’s childcare system more than 16 years after appalling conditions were discovered during the collapse of communism.

While progress has been made to meet demands from Brussels for EU entry — such as the closure of large state-run orphanages — many problems remain, including the care of handicapped and abandoned children. There is also the issue of adoption by foreigners, a practice banned by Romanian governments for the past five years.

The latest allegations, sent in two letters detailing shocking abuse, were made by residents and former residents of the Brasov orphanage aged between 14 and 20.

One letter from a group of four children said: “We, the senders of this letter, are a group of teenagers institutionalised since 1994 . . . we are frustrated, punished, beaten and humiliated.”

The second letter, from a group of seven youngsters, said: “We had the unluck [sic] to grow 12 years in the private orphanage . . . No one loves us . . . That is the reason we write to you today.”

The letters contain harrowing accounts by two sisters aged 17 and 16, who claimed they were raped by a member of their orphanage’s staff two years ago at a summer camp. The sisters, who were abandoned at an early age by their mother, confirmed the details last week.

The accounts have helped to reopen a debate about inter-country adoption which has been pivotal to Romania’s childcare policies. After the 1989 revolution, when the plight of an estimated 200,000 orphaned and abandoned children emerged, thousands of western families were eager to adopt. More than 600 Romanian children were taken by British families until the process was halted in 2001.

The moratorium was urged by Baroness Nicholson, the Liberal Democrat MEP for southeast England, who insisted Romania’s entry into the EU be linked to its treatment of children. Nicholson claimed foreign adoptions had created a lucrative black market trade in baby and child trafficking.

Opponents denied many of her assertions and claimed the moratorium “denied children a good home” in the West.

More than 1,000 children who had been approved for foreign adoption when the ban was introduced have been caught between the two camps, including those whose details have gone to Brussels.

Those children interviewed by The Sunday Times said they were pleased that their stories were being told. One of the alleged rape victims said: “It is true this is what happened to us.” The letters incorporated details of how the children had been approved for adoption with families in Italy, France and the United States before the ban on foreign adoption was imposed.

The one containing the rape victims’ account revealed that they had been selected six years ago for adoption by a family near Paris. When it was read to them by a child psychologist last week, both girls broke down and wept.

The 16-year-old grasped the hand of her sister and whispered quietly: “Paris . . . a family in France wanted us . . . this is the first we knew about this.” She added: “For the first time people outside Romania will know about us and how we have been kept prisoner when we wanted to leave.”

When Bogdan Hampu read how he had been identified for adoption with an American family, he smiled ruefully. “Wow, America . . . I never knew. To think I could have been in America instead of here, incredible.”

The Brasov orphanage is owned by the country’s richest man, Ion Tiriac, the former tennis star. A former manager to Boris Becker, Tiriac is acknowledged as the country’s leading philanthropist. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on his part.

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