Eight Croats arrested in Zambia for disputed adoption. The story gets weirder and weirder

MORE than three weeks have passed since the arrest of eight Croatian citizens, i.e. four married couples in Zambia, allegedly on suspicion of child trafficking. The indictment has not yet been filed, and the key circumstances of the case are still not known to the public.

Based on reports from the local and Zambian media and statements from Croatian institutions, we know that four married couples from Croatia came to Zambia to adopt children from the Congo and that the Zambian police arrested them in the town of Ndoli together with the children, who were handed over to a social welfare institution. .

According to a statement by the Police Chief of the Copperbelt Province, Peacewell Mweemba, a preliminary investigation indicates that the adoption documents issued by Congo "are not authentic", local media reported.

Zambian police said they received a tip-off on December 6 that three white men had booked rooms at a guest house in Ndola, after which immigration officials, with the help of police, tracked down the suspects, who were accompanied by children of Congolese origin between the ages of one and three. They were arrested a day later at Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport.

The local police announced their identity, which caused great public interest and calls from various right-wing politicians and portals, from the Vice President of the Zagreb City Assembly from the Homeland Movement Igor Peternel to the Narod.hr portal Željka Marki?.

Did the arrested Croats know that they were breaking the law or were they deceived?

They and their like-minded people on social networks did not need additional details or the completion of the investigation to start speculating about how the media is hiding the identity of the suspects and covering up the case because one of the suspects is Noah Kraljevi?, a councilor of the Zagreb Local Board Samobor?ek from the list of the We Can platform. In addition, his LGBT identity and trans-activism triggered an avalanche of transphobic insults and outrage.

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The second suspect, Zoran Subaši?, is also linked to the ruling coalition in Zagreb, although that connection is rather far-fetched. Namely, he is the guitarist of the popular rock band Hladno pivo, and the wife of the singer of the same band, Ivana Kekin, is a member of parliament from the same left-green platform, which is currently in power in Zagreb.

However, we do not know exactly how the suspected Croatian citizens got these children for adoption, whether they definitely violated the laws of the Democratic Republic of Congo or Zambia, and if they did, whether they were aware that they were violating them.

Of the four Croatian couples arrested in Zambia on suspicion of human trafficking, two are on the register of potential adopters. This means that they received a positive opinion on suitability and suitability for adoption, with one couple being in the register from 2021 and the other from 2022, the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Policy reported.

Congo is not a signatory to the Hague Adoption Convention

In response to Hina's inquiry, this ministry confirmed that it had not received requests from potential adopters from Croatia to adopt children from the Congo in accordance with the Convention on Child Protection and Cooperation in Relation to Intercountry Adoption, which was drawn up in The Hague in 1993.

This, at least at first glance, contradicts the statement of the Minister of the Interior, Davor Božinovi?, from last week, according to which "the children have Croatian documents that were issued on the basis of the appropriate decisions of the Croatian institutions".

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And the Africa Press portal reports that the pages with the biological data of each of the passports of the arrested Croatian citizens bore the Croatian name of their allegedly adopted child from the Congo.

The question arises - on the basis of which solutions did the children, who did not even come to Croatia, receive Croatian documents from one ministry, given that another ministry in the same government says that their adoption was not officially requested in Croatia?

Namely, as explained by the relevant ministry, persons who have a place of residence or stay in Croatia and wish to adopt a child from another contracting state of the mentioned convention, after the procedure before the center for social welfare in order to determine the suitability for adoption of the child, submit an application to the Ministry as the central body, with indicating the country from which they want to adopt a child.

Upon receipt of the request, the Ministry of Labor and Family informs potential adopters about the possibility of interstate adoption of a child from the specified contracting state, as well as the necessary documentation.

Ministry of Family: We are not responsible for adoptions from the Congo

However, when asked by the Narod.hr portal, the Ministry said that it is not competent to adopt children from the DR Congo, given that the country is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Adoption of Children. Instead, potential adoptive parents must meet all the requirements for adopting children in their country, and then be approved to adopt children in the country where they are adopting.

On the other hand, in an interview with RTL on Sunday , Božinovi? avoided answering the question of whether a mistake was made in any of the competent Croatian institutions, commenting that "it is too early to talk about it" because "investigations are ongoing".

"We know that they are in a situation that is not pleasant for anyone, but I have no objections to the treatment," he added.

Adoption from a country that is not a signatory to the Hague Convention is actually confirmed by Croatian municipal courts on the basis of a positive decision by the court in Congo, Telegram writes , adding that dozens of such decisions have been made so far.

>> Grli? Radman: The Ministry did not issue any documents for the adoption of children from the Congo

On Saturday, however, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gordan Grli? Radman, revealed that his ministry, that is, the Croatian embassy in the Republic of South Africa, which also covers Zambia, "neither participated in the civil procedure of issuing documents nor participated in any child adoption procedure."

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), by the way, states that "intercountry adoptions from the DR Congo are not legally possible at this time," with a strong recommendation that no new adoptions be initiated in that country at this time.

In that statement, USCIS recalls that on September 27, 2013, the Congolese Ministry of the Interior and Security, General Directorate of Migration, notified the US Embassy in Kinshasa that it no longer issues exit permits to adopted Congolese children who wish to leave the country with their adoptive parents and that these the suspension remains firmly in place. Such exit permits are required for adopted children traveling to the US from DR Congo.

The State Department is clear: Intercountry adoptions from DR Congo are prohibited by law

And the State Department (US Department of State) clearly indicates that intercountry adoptions from the DR Congo have been suspended in accordance with that country's law that came into force on July 15, 2016, and that the relevant ministries of the DR Congo have made it known that they will not allow adopted children to leave the territory of this country.

The State Department's latest warning from May 4, 2020 states that adoptions are still not legally possible, and the State Department's travel advisory from October 4 this year also states that the DR Congo is not a signatory to another Hague Convention, the one on international child abductions.

The State Department in its 2022 annual report also states that the country still "does not fully meet the minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking, but is making significant efforts to do so." He mentions examples of child recruitment into the Congolese national army and various paramilitary groups.

This report, however, deals with the smuggling of children for warfare, forced labor in the notorious mines of gold, diamonds, cobalt and other metals, sexual exploitation and crime, not smuggling for adoption into families from Europe or America.

In any case, it seems more than inappropriate to equate illegal adoption with the trafficking of children for prostitution or forced labor, as many who comment on this case do.

Ban as an opportunity for racketeering by foreign adopters

By the way, DR Congo is still recovering from two brutal wars, in which millions of people died, but armed conflicts between the army and rebels in the east of the country, which are supported by other African countries, continue today. The number of orphans is estimated at more than 4 million, making this country one of the most popular destinations for intercountry adoption.

Reuters wrote back in 2015 that the ban on intercountry adoption, enacted in 2013 by then-President Joseph Kabila, fueled a lucrative black market for smuggling children out of the country for such adoption.

Congolese authorities at the time cited concerns over alleged abuse of children in American households, but activists say the move has created a lucrative trade in which children are smuggled across borders for a price, then bought by adoptive parents in Rwanda, Ethiopia or Zambia. In other words, a racket opportunity.

"Adoptions in the Congo have become a business for some"

"Adoptions in DR Congo have become a business for government agents, judges, lawyers, representatives of adoption agencies and orphanages," a source told Reuters at the time.

Also, in 2013, the New York Times wrote precisely about the problematic trend of adopting children from DR Congo among American evangelical Christians - problematic because it is not known exactly how many children from orphanages in Congo ended up there, and many of them actually have at least one biological parent.

In any case, a definitive answer to the question of whether the Congolese children in this case were taken out of the country illegally can only be given when the investigation is completed, but the available data suggest that such an adoption is not legally feasible.

The suspected Croatian citizens are still in custody, and the result of the Zambian police investigation is still awaited. Index sent an inquiry about this case to the Zambian ministries of foreign and internal affairs, as well as to the relevant Croatian ministries, and we will publish the answer if and when we receive it.