Today three children came home from Haiti on a special flight. It concerns 3 boys who were taken up for adoption in 3 different families and for whom the adoption procedure went through the Dutch Adoption Foundation (NAS).

The adoption procedure of the affected children in Haiti was completed, but due to travel restrictions due to

COVID-19 it was impossible to pick them up. An end to the present situation was not in sight. The German organization HELP a child eV "Kinder finden Eltern" found itself in a similar situation with 7 children. Their adoption procedure was also completed, after which it was impossible for the parents to pick up the children. This organization has taken the initiative to rent a private jet to transfer the children from Haiti to Germany. The Dutch parents were able to join this because of 3 available places on the flight. The aircraft left Basel with escorts on Friday morning and landed early on Saturday 9 May with the special passengers at Karlsruhe Airport.

In Haiti, the Dutch children were prepared for the flight by the Haitian partner of the NAS, escorted to the airport and handed over to the escorts on the trip at Port-au-Prince airport. Explicit permission was granted for this special flight by the Central Authority in Haiti (IBESR).

The 2 weeks prior to this Airlift has been extremely exciting for the families involved whether they would be able to get permission for this Airlift and get their children home. During this short period of time, the NAS had a particularly intensive collaboration with the Dutch Ministries of Justice and Security and Foreign Affairs. The 3 organizations have made joint efforts to obtain the necessary consents on the Dutch, Haitian and German sides to pick up the children, bring them into the Schengen area, land in Karlsruhe and hand the children over to the Dutch parents.

MEXICALI, B.C. (KYMA, KECY)-A same-sex couple in Mexicali returns their nine-year-old adopted daughter to the National System for Integral Family Development (DIF).

After 6 months of trying to adopt a child, Martha and Bertha became the first same-sex couple in Mexicali to adopt a child.

However, the child was returned to the state DIF without any reasons being disclosed by the party of authority.

Last October, the couple managed to finalize the adoption after more than a year of completing the procedure and becoming the first same-sex couple in Mexicali and Baja California to achieve the adoption of a minor by the DIF.

The general director of the state DIF, Blanca Esthela Fabela, reported that the minor is in good health and the case is being investigated by the institution.

American families adopted 241 Indian kids in 2019, an official US report said on Wednesday. In fiscal 2019, consular officers issued 2,971 immigrant visas to children adopted abroad (2,677) or to be adopted in the United States (294) by American citizens, the State Department said in its 12th annual report on the issue. The report shows a decline in the total number of inter-country adoptions by American families, Special Advisor for Children's Issues Michelle Bernier-Toth told reporters during a news conference.

Most of that decline he attributed to a decrease of inter-country adoptions from just two countries: China (a decrease of 656) and Ethiopia (a decrease of 166). In both cases, the reductions result from "continued social, economic or legal changes that we have previously reported on regarding those countries", she said.

"We believe that most of the continuing worldwide decline is due to countries prioritising domestic placements for vulnerable children before considering inter-country adoption, or countries such as Russia, Guatemala and Ethiopia, which have unilaterally suspended or banned inter-country adoption," she said.

At the same time, some countries noticeably increased the number of inter-country adoptions to the US, including Ukraine (+50), Liberia (+21), Hungary (+17) and Colombia (+15), the report said.

However, Chinese kids still top the list of adoptions with 819 in 2019. China is followed by Ukraine (298), Colombia (244), India (241) and South Korea (166).

ALBANY – Ten-year-old Myroslava "Mira" Chumakova has lived in Ukrainian orphanages since she was a toddler, surrounded by dozens of other children, seeking new families and new homes.

That was all supposed to change for Mira, in the middle of March.

That's when Albany resident Theresa Grimes, 53, boarded a plane in Newark, New Jersey, on March 13 for the 10 hours of travel to Kiev, Ukraine. It was the fourth time that she flew to the eastern European country, but this time she planned to return home with Mira, her newly adopted daughter, to join her husband, Michael, and their eight biological sons.

But Theresa Grimes never made it to Mira on that trip. About a day after she arrived in Kiev, Grimes was contacted by a U.S. Embassy representative to tell her that the borders were closing because of the COVID-19 pandemic and that she could end up stuck in Ukraine indefinitely if she didn't leave the country immediately.

Grimes made the difficult decision to return home to Albany without Mira, who has epilepsy and cerebral palsy. Two other American families that work with the same adoption organization as Grimes and her family also had to turn around and head back to the states.

Foreign adoptions by US families drop by more than a quarter

David Crary, Ap National Writer Updated 2:40 pm CDT, Wednesday, May 6, 2020

NEW YORK (AP) — The number of foreign children adopted by U.S. parents fell by more than one-quarter last year, extending a 15-year decline, according to State Department figures released Wednesday.

Sharp drops in adoptions from China and Ethiopia more than offset increases from Ukraine, Liberia and elsewhere.

In the 2019 budget year, there were 2,971 adoptions from abroad, compared with 4,059 in 2018 and a high of 22,884 in 2004. The number has dropped every year since then, even as American families continue to account for roughly half of all international adoptions worldwide.

Democratic Republic of the Congo: Intercountry Adoptions and Exit Permits Suspended

Last Updated: May 4, 2020

This Alert Supersedes the Alert Issued on June 21, 2018

The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has confirmed to the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa that, pursuant to a 2016 law, intercountry adoptions from the DRC continue to be suspended, effective July 15, 2016. The MOJ; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of Gender, Family, and Children; and the Immigration Authority (DGM) agree that intercountry adoptions from the DRC are not legally possible at this time.

Due to the suspension of adoptions and the continued suspension of the issuance of exit permits in adoption cases, DGM will not allow adopted children to leave Congolese territory. Thus, adopted children have no legal means to exit the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pof_S0oFg0&authuser=0

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Arun Dohle

Date: Fri 1. May 2020 at 12:06

Subject: linkedin chat with Fiom / ISS / Sandra de Vries

NOIDA: No one knows how long she lay there. A few might have spotted the pink towel by the roadside but not the tiny frame of the baby its folds hid. It was only when the baby bawled that some people crossing the traffic and noise-free Parthala roundabout on Tuesday evening stopped to check.

They called the police when they realised the baby had been abandoned there.

A girl, she is just four days old. A Dial 112 police response vehicle rescued the baby

A woman constable was part of the team that took her for a checkup to Kailash hospital. Police said they had learnt from doctors who examined the baby that she was healthy and delivery appeared to have taken place at a healthcare facility.

Phase III SHO Amit Singh said police were inquiring at nearby hospitals about deliveries over the last few days to trace the baby’s parents. “Since the child’s delivery has been an institutional delivery, it will not be difficult to know who the parents are. They will be booked under relevant sections of the IPC when traced,” Singh said.

By Roelie Post (guest blogger)

When in 2011/2012 the filming of Stolen Children – Intercountry Adoptions from India was ongoing in ACT’s office in Brussels, I got drawn into the details of the German/Indian trafficking case.

Arun was talking in German with the journalist, explaining to her the involvement of the German branch of International Social Services. Internationale Sozialdienst Deutscher Zweig, he called it.

Wait, where did I see that name before?

A quick look into my archives brought me to a Petition Kreuz 1999 handed in in 1999 at the European Parliament by a German citizen, a certain Gunther Kreutz.

New Delhi: For Georgia residents Whitney and Mike Saville, their trip to India in March was a realisation of a long-time dream of adopting a child. They came to India on March 6, after a two year wait.

The paperwork for a passport and a US visa for their adopted daughter was pending when India announced a three-week lockdown starting March 25. The Savilles were stuck in India.

The couple’s three sons, all between the ages of 4 and 7, were back home in Atlanta. Mike tried to fly back while Whitney stayed in India but the plan, early in the lockdown, went nowhere. The couple then made a video, asking for help.

“We are grateful that we have Grace (the name they have given their daughter) in our care now. We are grateful we came, we just wish the circumstances were a little bite different,” Whitney said in the video.

The Savilles weren’t alone. Foreign nationals who came to India to adopt children from countries such as the US, Italy and Malta were stranded.