There were 54 successful applications, mostly from foreign countries, for adoptions in 2018 – a 10-year high, Minister for the Family, Children’s Rights and Social Solidarity Michael Falzon said as he officially opened the National Adoption Strategy for public consultation on Tuesday.

Out of these 54 applications, 38 were for children from India, 8 from Slovakia, 7 from Portugal and 1 from Thailand.

The strategy is based on 25 recommendations which are planned to be implemented by 2022, and the prime objective of it is to facilitate adoptions while ensuring that everything is done with the best interest of children, who – Falzon said – must never be treated like commodities – at heart.

Falzon said that prospective parents applying for inter-country adoptions had benefitted from a €10,000 government grant to cover part of the expenses that they faced due to the adoption process.

The minister also noted that the government had concluded an agreement which would pave the way for adoptions from Bulgaria, and that discussions were underway for a similar agreement with Moldova as well.

The illegal adoption of babies born in the Republic of the Marshall Islands into the United States has become an industry. In a move to address this issue, three Marshallese citizens were recently charged with criminal trafficking in persons in Majuro.

The three defendants charged by the RMI courts include a Marshallese residing in Arkansas. The other two defendants are residing in Majuro, according to a report from the Marianas Variety. The case involves the attempted recruitment of a Majuro woman to give up her baby for adoption in the U.S. state.

According to the Marianas Variety, charges were filed by RMI assistant attorney general Meuton Laiden against Justin Aine, 46, Aiti “Hatty” Anidrep, 49, and Sally Abon, 53 on March 14.

Marshall Island passport holders can travel to the U.S. under the Compact of Free Association. However, traveling for the purpose of adoption is illegal, according to the report. The RMI court scheduled an April 12 preliminary hearing on the case.

The case offers a rare glimpse into the thriving adoption pipeline to the U.S., documented in a Civil Beat investigation in November.

In its toughest criminal action to date to slow a thriving adoption pipeline to the U.S., the Republic of the Marshall Islands has charged a well-known adoption fixer with human trafficking, a potential 15 years prison sentence.

The case centers on a January 2018 incident in which the fixer, Justin Aine, was stopped at the airport in Majuro, the Marshallese capital, just before boarding a plane to the U.S. with two women, one pregnant and the other with a month-old infant in a stroller.

“Black Market Babies,” a Civil Beat investigation published in November, found that Aine has worked with at least two U.S. attorneys to facilitate adoptions of Marshallese children. The court documents in this case do not name any lawyers.

Two Marshallese women alleged to have helped Aine were charged with aiding and abetting human trafficking, with a potential sentence of seven years.

Action taken following complaint to Union Minister Maneka Gandhi

Anantapur Sishu Gruha manager Deepthi was dismissed from service on corruption charges following directions from the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development.

The officer of the Andhra Pradesh Women Development and Child Welfare (WD&CW) department allegedly took bribe from a Canadian woman who came to adopt a baby.

According to sources, the Canadian made an online application for adoption of a female baby from India on the portal of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA), Government of India, a few months ago.

For inter-country adoptions, the Authorised Foreign Adoption Agency (AFAA) will prepare a Home Study Report (HSR) on the family details and the reasons for adopting the baby and other particulars and submit a report to CARA. After receiving necessary documents from AFAA and verification, the adoptive parents can choose the baby online and the State Adoption Resource Agency (SARA) of the State concerned will hand over the selected baby to the couple.

Yesterday hit my one month mark since we stepped foot at John Abraham Memorial Bethany Home. (This was supposed to be uploaded on the mark, but it woukdn't have come out as it did).

It's a long one, but this part means the world to me. It was an experience that will stay with me.

The point of our trip to India was to go here and Kodangal to see where I spent my time when I was here. We wanted to explore the life I never knew.

?

Before I continue about the trip, during the trip, my mom remembered a video she received from a doctor that visited the orphanage two months before my dad went. She got it transferred to DVD and some photos will compare it from 1999 to now, as well as some other content.

PART 1: CHANGES TO INSTITUTIONALIZATION IN EUROPE

In Bulgaria as with other European Union countries, there is a movement which has been funded by the European Union’s Structural and investment Funds (ESIF) since 2014 to close orphanages and institutions in eight EU Member States (Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Romania). The goal is to close all governmental institutions by 2022, including those for children with disabilities, by promoting the transition of youth from institutionalization to family-based care.  A pan-European campaign with Eurochild, the Opening Doors for Europe’s Children Campaign has played a key role in securing funding for such child protection reform across Europe and supporting economically disadvantaged families. The reforms will prevent the separation of children from their families and offer high quality alternatives where separation is in the child’s best interests. It is also expected to demonstrate an expenditure to the government that is equal to or less than the current cost of running institutions while providing improved overall outcomes for families and children.

Why is this important to you, a prospective adoptive parent?  Because change bubbling up in the institutionalized orphan population of Europe can mean eventual advantages for your adoptive child in experiencing a more home-like environment while in care, reducing the sometimes ill effects of institutionalization, allowing those children with disabilities more opportunities for social inclusion and focused development, and allowing economically disadvantaged children who should never have to be placed in an orphanage to begin with to reside with their biological parents who can begin to capably support them.

This particular funding is designed to address the plight of hundreds of thousands of children who are growing up in institutional care across Europe and runs through 2020.  Considered a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for these European nations, deinstitutionalization (DI) is considered “the core of building more inclusive, resilient societies.” [February 2015, Opening Doors for Europe’s Children] This EU focus on DI is also active in two Candidate Countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia) and two Neighbourhood Countries (Moldova and Ukraine). Additionally, also involved are 4 additional member states of the European Commission: Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Croatia who also assisted in adopting the EC Recommendation on Investing in Children in 2013.

The Marshall Islands has charged three people with offences relating to the trafficking of babies.

The charges mark the country's first legal move to stop the flow of illegal adoptions of Marshallese babies in the United States.

The three accused are all Marshall Islanders.

Two are from Majuro and the other is resident in Arkansas which is understood to be a popular destination for pregnant Marshallese mothers who adopt out their babies.

The three accused made an initial court appearance this week before Judge Witten Philippo, who scheduled a preliminary hearing for April 12 where arguments will be presented in detail.

"In secondary school, fellow students did the Hitler salute"

There is still a lot of ignorance about adoption. Sisters Maja and Adinda put the finishing touches on the i.

In the adoption debate, it seems like everyone gets a vote, except for the adopted ones themselves. For youth media agency StampMedia, journalist Anouk Torbeyns, himself an adoptive youngster, went looking for that voice. This is the story of Maja and Adinda.

Maja (33) and Adinda (30) are two adoptive sisters from Ghent. At a very young age they were adopted from India and Sri Lanka respectively. Now they feel completely Belgian, but it could also have turned out differently. In their youth, the sisters were regularly confronted with racism.

"If you grow up in the neighborhood of Geraardsbergen, chances are that you will be the only colored person," says Adinda. "In elementary school you hear things like 'you are not allowed to play because you are a brown cow'. In high school I was confronted with students who did the Hitler salute or threw French fries at my head."

Manat (26) is "eternally grateful" to his parents for adopting him

"I have been adopted and I am more than grateful to my adoptive parents. In fact, it is priceless. Thanks mum and dad." This is what the 26-year-old Manat Janmaat writes under an article from RTL News on Facebook about adoption. He shared his story because, according to him, adoption was put in too negative a light.

Yesterday we wrote how the number of adopted children from abroad who end up with Dutch parents continues to fall. According to emeritus professor of adoption René Hoksbergen, it is the result of adoption scandals, better reproduction techniques and more prosperity in former adopting countries.

Hoksbergen argues for a further reduction of foreign adoptions. "The impact of an adoption is large and although there are very good adoptive parents, you remove a child from a large part of his or her identity," Hoksbergen said earlier in Trouw. More than a hundred responses came to our story. Not everyone agreed with the professor.

Reactions