Consultation on mother-and-baby home inquiry to begin

7 days ago

By Matt Fox, BBC News NI

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Baby girl who died from being left in the back of a hot car 'for hours' in San Diego - just two months after being adopted by local gay couple

By NIC WHITE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 01:49 BST, 24 June 2024 | UPDATED: 22:06 BST, 25 June 2024

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KARACHI:

Three witnesses on Saturday recorded their testimonies before the judicial magistrate for District East in the case against rights activist and philanthropist Sarim Burney for alleged child trafficking. Defence lawyer Amir Qureshi, however, did not cross-examine the witnesses' statements during the proceedings.

Sarim, who runs Sarim Burney Welfare Trust International, has been accused of smuggling a newborn baby girl named Haya to the United States. It has surfaced that he had smuggled over 20 newborns in the past year under the guise of adopting them. Afsheen, mother of Haya, along with Bushra and Ayaz, appeared before the judge to record their statements. The witnesses testified in the presence of Burney, who is accused of document tampering and involvement in human trafficking.

According to FIA sources, Bushra and Ayaz had contacted Dr Madiha regarding the adoption of the girl. Defence lawyer clarified that no cross-examination was conducted on the witnesses' statements during Saturday's hearing and that it would take place at a later stage in the trial.

In Hungary and Bulgaria, disabled children and Roma often end up on lists for foreign adoption. Nevertheless, Flanders continues the adoptions from Eastern Europe.

On November 27, 2023, prospective adoptive parents throughout Flanders will be glued to their computer screens, waiting for a message from the Flemish Center for Adoption (VCA). The final decision will be made that day: can they continue their procedure? Due to reports of malpractice and fraud, the Flemish government decided to examine all its collaborations with the so-called sending countries.

We often associate intercountry adoption with Africa and Asia, but there are also European countries on that list of countries. In a joint study with the Dutch platform Investico, the TV program Zembla , the Hungarian medium Atlaszo and the Bulgarian newspaper 24 Chasa, Knack examined adoptions from Bulgaria and Hungary - the latter has become the second largest sending country to Flanders. , after Thailand. This shows dire situations with Roma children.

Discrimination

Everything revolves around children from Hungary and Bulgaria who were given up for adoption in the past ten years. Eighteen of them ended up in Flanders. The golden rule for adoptions is the principle of subsidiarity: if an adoption is in the best interests of the child, a new home must first be looked for at home, abroad is only the very last option. This is also the rule in Hungary and Bulgaria. There are plenty of candidates in both countries: there are more prospective parents on the waiting lists than children. However, the profile of those children does not necessarily match the preferences of the domestic parents. They prefer healthy, young children from the Bulgarian and Hungarian majority. Roma children, children with disabilities and older children end up on a list for adoption abroad.

Bringing an adopted child to the Netherlands has become difficult, but adoption from Hungary is still allowed. There the system would be organized responsibly. However, research shows that this is not true.

CHENNAI: On the date of adoption, the ties of the adoptive child with his biological family shall be deemed to be severed and replaced by those created by the adoption in the adoptive family, Madras high court has held.
“Thus, it is clear that the adoptive child is construed to be a member of the adopted family, all the ties of the child are replaced in the adoptive family created by adoption,” Justice G K Ilanthiraiyan said.

The judge made the observation while setting aside an order passed by Revenue Divisional Officer, Erode, granting legal heir certificate to biological siblings of an adopted son after the latter’s death.
According to petitioner V Sakthivel, his grandfather Sengota had three children Ramasamy, Varanavasi and Lakshmi. He is the son of Varanavasi.

Ramasamy married Sivakami. Since they had no children, they adopted one Kottravel Sethupathi in 1999. Ramasamy and Sivakami died leaving behind Kottravel Sethupathi as their sole legal heir, he said.
On Sept 6, 2020 Kottravel Sethupathi also died without any Class I legal heir as per the Hindu Succession Act. While the petitioner is Class II legal heir, Kottravel Sethupathi’s biological siblings obtained legal heir certificates to inherit the properties left behind by him.

Aggrieved, he has moved the present plea challenging the order.

Allowing the plea, the court set aside the order granting legal heir certificates to the biological siblings of Kottravel Sethupathi.


 

The case about the closure of international adoption to Denmark is characterized by deeply serious irregularities from both the Danish Appeals Board and the Ministry of Social Affairs. It is unacceptable.

In her response to our chronicle , written by a group of adopters from Danish International Adoption's waiting list on 15 June, Social Affairs Minister Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil expresses sympathy for our situation , which we are happy about.

However, the minister refers to the Danish Appeals Board's criticism of Danish International Adoption from January this year, as well as the Norwegian authorities' recent recommendation to withdraw the permits to mediate adoptions from South Africa.

At the same time that Rosenkrantz-Theil refers to Norway's recommendation, the Norwegian authorities in their  report from June point  to the Danish minister's suspension from January as a contributing factor to their decision. Common to both the Danish and Norwegian authorities is that no one seems to have provided documentation that demonstrates serious errors or challenges in adoptions from South Africa.

Although the case currently concerns four people, there may be hundreds of similar cases.

Four Greenlanders are demanding a total of one million in compensation from the Danish state. This is done in a draft summons sent to the Danish state.

The case concerns four Greenlandic children who were previously adopted to Danish foster parents.

Lawyer Mads Pramming wants the state to pay DKK 250,000 in compensation individually to the four people. He believes that the persons were adopted from Greenland to Denmark on a legally questionable basis.

By strictly selecting adoption countries, outgoing Minister Weerwind wanted to secure international adoption by Dutch parents. But what does Hungary do on its list of selected countries?
 

What should happen next with international child adoption after the devastating conclusions drawn by the Joustra committee in 2021? It was a major political task for outgoing minister Franc Weerwind (D66, Legal Protection), so devastating was Joustra's assessment of the adoption world. The former top official had identified corruption, fraud and child trafficking in almost all adopted countries investigated. According to Weerwind, the only option to prevent large-scale abuses in the future as much as possible was a completely new adoption system. A system with 'important guarantees' and a strict selection of adopting countries.

In order to be able to choose from which countries adoption should remain possible, Weerwind had an 'analysis' drawn up for each country. This meant that one adoptive country after another was eliminated, leaving six. And so, in November 2022, it was announced that Hungary passed Weerwind's test. The 'country report' of the Central European country covers just over two A4 pages and is predominantly positive. Justice therefore concludes that there are 'reasons to continue the adoption relationship'.

Major supplier

And that's a good thing, because Hungary has been a 'major supplier' of children to Dutch parents for ten years. Almost a quarter of the adopted children are now of Hungarian descent, 79 came to the Netherlands in the past five years. They are often a bit older and often come at the same time as a brother or sister. Sometimes they have medical conditions or psychological problems. They come from a Hungarian foster family or from a children's home. And many children come from poverty-stricken Roma families.

Another five hundred Dutch parents could adopt a child from abroad. An adoption freeze has been announced, but ongoing procedures will not be terminated.

Another five hundred Dutch parents have a chance to bring an adopted child here, the Ministry of Justice confirms to Investico and TV program Zembla . Outgoing Minister Weerwind has not yet terminated these ongoing procedures, despite the adoption freeze he decided on last month.

Two hundred of these parents already have permission in principle, the last step before they are linked to a child. The other parents are not yet that far in the procedure. In recent years, approximately fifty adopted children came to the Netherlands every year. If all procedures continue, this means that adoption will continue for years to come.

Because some parents are allowed to adopt multiple children at once, the numbers can increase even further. Two or even three children regularly come to the Netherlands at the same time to grow up here in a family.

Vulnerable procedures