FFIA - History Adoption Agency Romania 2014

FFIA was the first Swedish organization that came to Romania after the fall of the wall and worked there during the years 1990 - 2001. Almost 200 children were adopted from the big, scary institutions in different parts of the country. Gabriela Coman, President of the Romanian Central Adoption Authority in Bucharest, gives here her history description and her advice to adoptees who want to search for their roots in the country.

At the beginning of the 90s, the law on international adoptions was very lax and allowed a large number of Romanian children to be adopted without clear norms. Because of this, a new law was passed to establish a central authority in Romania to monitor and manage the cases where a native family for adoption was not found.

Despite these improvements, critical voices were raised as more measures were taken to improve the handling of international adoptions. Therefore, a new law was introduced in 2004, which allowed international adoptions of Romanian children only if the adoptive family was related to the child in the second line.

These measures were recently changed (2012) so that a Romanian child can be adopted internationally only if the adoptive parents are related within the fourth degree to the child, or if an adoptive parent is a Romanian citizen.

Adoptions today

In Romania, in recent years, adoption has been a recurring topic of public opinion. Romanians are more and more aware that there are children who need a family and that adoption is a possibility. We have also noticed an increased interest from Romanians to adopt children who were previously considered more difficult to adopt away (preschoolers, siblings).

A few international adoptions have been completed. Until now, in accordance with Law No. 273/2004 on adoption procedures as amended and supplemented by Law 233/2011, Romanian courts have approved the adoption of 18 Romanian children by families from other countries.

According to Romanian law, a child is suitable for international adoption only if no suitable domestic family has been found within 2 years after the child has been deemed suitable for adoption according to a court decision.

By reviewing the cases of the 18 internationally adopted children during the period April 2012 to September 2014, we see that these children are in the category of difficult-to-place children, depending on their age and health. Only 3 of the 18 children were adopted by relatives up to the 4th degree. Most of the internationally adopted children were 5 years old when the adoption was approved, the oldest was 15 and two were siblings adopted by the same family.

Search for roots

According to Romanian law in Romania, the adopted have the right to find out their origin and their own history and can get help from our institution to get in touch with their biological parents or relatives.

We would like to emphasize that adopted persons have the right to request and receive information that confirms the adoption as well as general information about life in the institution and the personal history that does not reveal the identity of the biological parents. The adoption can be disclosed only to those persons who have received a special authorization.

The identity of the biological parents may be disclosed prior to authorization only for medical reasons, at the request of either of the adoptive parents, of the adoptee, of the adoptee's spouse or descendants, or by representatives of hospitals or health care facilities.

In cases where the adoptee does not know the identity of the biological parents after reaching the age of majority, he/she can ask the court in Bucharest to authorize access to information withheld by the authorities about the biological parents.

The biological parents or relatives can receive general information about the adopted person only if he or his adoptive parents have approved it.

As we highlighted earlier, since 2005 the adoptees in Romania have the right to find out their origin and history. We recommend the adoptees who are searching for their roots to contact us directly when they are looking for information about their past life or when they want to get in touch (by email, phone, meeting) with their biological relatives. We work with the social authorities and other institutions and authorities, and in this work we take into account both the adoptees' right to learn about their roots and the biological relatives' right to privacy and protection of personal information.

The adoptees who want to start their application must send us a written request together with a copy of the birth certificate and a valid ID card. These documents are mandatory and if they have other documents from the adoption file, they can send these as well because they can facilitate the search.

It is important that the adoptees also think through the need for counseling and psychological support when they start their search. Therefore, we advise them to seek out specialists who can help them set realistic expectations, manage anxiety and later provide support when the information they receive has to be digested and sunk in. We recommend this because the answers can sometimes upset and throw the recipient off balance. We emphasize that, in turn, the biological relatives to whom we convey information or contact, are informed of the consequences of such a step and asked for approval.

If the biological relatives from Romania do not agree to their identity being revealed or do not want to contact the adoptees, the adoptees can only receive general information about their personal history and not information that can identify or allow contact with their biological family.

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