Temporary Cessation of The Barker Adoption Foundation’s Adoption Programs in China, Colombia, and India

Last Updated: August 13, 2019

On August 9, 2019, the Intercountry Adoption Accreditation and Maintenance Entity (IAAME) required The Barker Adoption Foundation (Barker) to temporarily cease providing adoption services in China, Colombia, and India. IAAME determined that it was necessary to take this action due to Barker’s failure to maintain substantial compliance with relevant accreditation standards. Barker’s adoption programs in other countries are not impacted by this action.

During this cessation, Barker must cease to provide all adoption services in connection with intercountry adoption cases in China, Colombia, and India, with the exception of home studies. Barker is not required to transfer any ongoing cases to another provider at this time.

If you have an open case with Barker in China, Colombia, or India, please contact them directly to find out how the cessation will affect your case. You may also wish to review the information on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ website at If Your Adoption Service Provider is no Longer Accredited or Approved

The Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation has signed two Memorandum of Understandings with Save the Children in Cambodia on the 22nd of February 2019. The First MoU on Family Care First and REACT (Responsive and Effective Child Welfare Systems Transformation) projects funded by USAID Cambodia and the European Union in Cambodia.

.

The top court had on January 4, 2018 directed all the states to file their responses on the issue of setting up of human rights courts as mandated in the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday slapped cost of up to Rs 1 lakh on seven states for failing to file responses on setting up human rights courts despite its direction last year.

The top court imposed cost of Rs 1 lakh each on Rajasthan and Uttarakhand while noting that neither have they filed the responses nor were their advocates present in the court during the hearing.

A bench comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and B R Gavai also slapped cost of Rs 50,000 each on Telengana, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Meghalaya and Mizoram after it was told that they have not filed their responses.

The bench said all these states can file their response within four weeks subject to payment of cost.

LUDHIANA: The adoptive parents of 10-year-old Pratigya have moved a local court for annulment of adoption

(https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/adoption), so that the girl can return to her parents. The girl had gone missing last

year and later adopted.

The first hearing would be held on August 14. Her adoptive parents said initially the authorities were not cooperating or guiding

them with the procedure to annul adoption, but they approached them after the TOI highlighted the issue.

It's difficult to imagine the person next door might be a slave, maybe they were trafficked into Australia under false pretenses, maybe they're being exploited.

Human trafficking and slavery are atrocious crimes that happen every day, in every country around the world. Slavery is a $158-billion industry worldwide, with only 1 per cent of victims ever rescued.

In Australia it is believed slavery-like offences have been historically under-reported, but the numbers are increasing with the Australian Federal Police experiencing a rise in human trafficking and slavery referrals in recent years.

In the 2013-14 financial year the AFP received 70 human trafficking-related complaints, that number more than doubled by 2017-18, with 162 referrals received.

An AFP spokeswoman said one reason for the increase was human trafficking and slavery offences were strengthened in 2013 after legislative amendments were made to the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995.

In June 2019, the ‘Angels and Demons’ investigation was made public. The case concerns the unlawful placing of children into foster care by the municipality of Bibbiano, province of Reggio Emilia.

The social services network of Val D’Enza, in the province of Reggio Emilia, is accused of having drawn up, for years, fake reports in order to remove children from their families and place them in paid foster care. The extremely grave abuse and violence allegations include the administration of electrical impulses to children to alter the state of their memory prior to court interviews, in order to induce fake memories of sexual abuse.

Those under investigation include the mayor of the Municipality of Bibbiano, politicians, doctors, social workers, self-employed professionals, psychologists and psychotherapists from a non-profit organisation in Turin.

Foster care is not a system for permanently separating family units, but is a temporary aid measure for children in difficult situations and is supposed to ensure that relations are maintained with their real families. The Italian Government has taken prompt action to shed light on the events which have taken place in Bibbiano.

Can the Commission therefore say:

NGO workers call for consultative meet on August 20 to discuss Nagaland’s adoption policy

Eastern Mirror Desk

Dimapur, Aug. 10: The Central Adoption Resource Authority (Cara), which functions as the nodal body for adoption of children in India and has the mandate to monitor and regulate in-country and inter-country adoptions, contradicts the special provisions of Article 371 (A) for Nagaland, according to Dr. Hesheto Chishi, the chairman of Nagaland NGOs Forum.

During a press conference in Dimapur on Saturday, Chishi said that in order to address this issue, a consultative meeting among stakeholders on child adoption would be held on August 20 in Dimapur.

He said that the Cara guideline posing a threat to Article 371 (A) concerns ‘legal and customary laws.’

Although the law no longer discriminates against them, the agencies involved sometimes

do.

In January, Disha Parekh, a 31-year-old

single woman from Bengaluru, decided to

take a big baby step — adopt a child. The

Marianne (Mary) Iwanek (nee Kolijn), social reformer and social worker, b November 12, 1943; d April 1, 2019

Becoming an orphan at the age of 15 gave social worker Mary Iwanek a great empathy and understanding of those she went on to help.

As head of adoption services in New Zealand in the 1990s, she was a leading figure in changing the adoption practice and law in this country.

Iwanek, the youngest of Adriana and Leendert Kolijn's 10 children, was born in Vleuten, the Netherlands, in 1943. Her father, a police commander, was in the Dutch underground resistance after refusing to work for Hitler.

After her parents died, and most of her siblings had emigrated, at 15 she became a state ward. Her brother Herman, on holiday from New Zealand, became her guardian. If she had stayed, she would have become a domestic servant. Instead, she became the first state ward to emigrate.

Adopted Bulgarian Children Found in a Horror House in the US

Crime | August 9, 2019, Friday // 08:44| Views: | Comments: 0

The two Bulgarian children adopted in the U.S. are in good health and under the protection of the authorities, said the press office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, following media publications about two Bulgarian children abused by their adoptive parents, U.S. citizens. Bulgaria’s Consulate General in Chicago conducted an immediate inquiry and reported that the children were in a safe place and under the protection of the Shannon County Sheriff's Office, Missouri. They are in a good condition and have undergone a full medical examination that has not found any serious injuries or illnesses.

The parents were arrested by the Somerville Police Department on 8 July 2019, after which the case was referred to the Shannon County Sheriff's Office.

The Consulate General in Chicago is in constant contact with the authorities and provides full administrative assistance on the case.