By staff reporter Shangguan Jiaoming 11.05.10 19:10

In Hunan, Family Planning Turns to Plunder

Families in a poor mountainous region have had children seized, and apparently sold, in the name of China's one-child policy

(Shaoyang) – On a long journey in search of his lost child, Yang Libing carries a single photograph. It's a faded snapshot of his daughter Yang Ling, who this year turns seven years old.

Family planning agency cadres in the poor mountain town where Yang Libing lived with his wife Cao Zhimei seized their daughter in 2005 and shipped her to an orphanage because they didn't pay afford a 6,000 yuan penalty – so-called "social support compensation" – for violating China's one-child policy.

Family-planning officials took & sold babies: report 

May 10 2011] 

By Liu Linlin

Alleged child trafficking involving family-planning officials in Hunan Province stunned the nation on Monday.

Over the last 10 years, family-planning "enforcers" in Shaoyang have seized at least 20 children from Longhui county, who were born outside their parents' birth quota, and dispatched them to a local children welfare center, according to media reports.

Blogging about life in Minnesota, raising our six kids with Down syndrome while battling Breast Cancer.

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the floor in the morning the devil says, "Oh shit! She's up!"

Monday, May 09, 2011

Formal Announcement

To all my readers:

Romania is pressured to reopen adoptions for foreign citizens, Romania libera reads following a decision of Romanian authorities in 2005 to block the process. President Basescu gave plenty of assurances that the situation will not change in his mandate.

Meanwhile, Romania is under a lot of pressure from US and EU officials to reopen the adoptions program for foreign citizens. In an interview for the newspaper US General Consul James Gray talks about the issues that stand between cooperation of the two countries in this sector.

Gray said that things have changed since 2005 and now authorities have tougher measures that imply real responsibilities to satisfy the state of origin of the children. In his opinion, Romania needs to change legislation and there was a proposal for a limited reopening of adoptions but the incumbent PM Emil Boc refused it.

May 6th, 2011 Erin Siegal/

Susana María de la Asunción Loarca Saracho, known to many Americans by her pen name “Susana Luarca,” has been taken into custody (“captured”) at her residence in Zone 10 of Guatemala City a little over an hour ago, at approximately 4:45 p.m. Police officers, CICIG investigators, and agents from the Ministerio Público were present for the arrest.

Loarca’s arrest follows an April 19, 2011 decision by the First Penal Court of Guatemala City to overturn a prior arrangement made by the Third Court of Appeals, which allowed Loarca to remain free on bail and house arrest. She is being charged with conspiracy, trafficking in persons for illegal adoption and use of false documents.

The case against Loarca, informally known as “the Asociación Primavera case” or “the Primavera case” to Guatemalan investigators, involves a network of at least seven people who will face criminal charges related to illegal adoption and human trafficking of the child known as Karen Abigail López García. There is also an arrest warrant out for Marvin Josue Bran Galindo (known as Marvin Bran), who first offered “Karen Abigail” as an adoptable orphan to the US adoption agency Celebrate Children International. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

Ethiopia to Cut Foreign Adoptions by Up to 90 Percent

By Peter Heinlein | Addis Ababa

VOA News

Ethiopia is cutting back by as much as 90 percent the number of inter-country adoptions it will allow, as part of an effort to clean up a system rife with fraud and corruption. Adoption agencies and children’s advocates are concerned the cutbacks will leave many Ethiopian orphans without the last-resort option of an adoptive home abroad.

Ethiopia’s Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs has issued a directive saying it will process a maximum of five inter-country adoptions a day, effective March 10. Currently, the ministry is processing up to 50 cases a day, about half of them to the United States.

A copy of the directive provided to VOA says the reduction of up to 90 percent in cases will allow closer scrutiny of documents used to verify a child’s orphan status.

Ministry spokesman Abiy Ephrem says the action was taken in response to indications of widespread fraud in the adoption process.

Our day began with a morning visit to Orphanage "Nezabravka"in Stara Zagora. We met with the orphanage director and she shared some of the things that her children do and are involved in. This is an orphanage that is more involved in the community and offer many more things to their children. This is also a facility for children ages 4 to 7. This orphanage is working with some biological parents to provide education and training to properly raise their children and regain custody. We asked how many children had special needs and the director identified one child with Autism, who found out later was lucky to still be there at this facility at the age of 10. The director said that they used to have a child with hydrocephalus but they sent it away with a shooing type motion with her hand. As we observed there some other children with hearing impairments and vision impairments. While the children did not display special needs in the way of genetic disorders or developmental disabilities, these children do have special needs. They have experienced loss, separation, the must share attention with many other children, they do not have a father or mother, they have experienced abuse, and much more. The needs are deeper and not defined. In addition, the director stated that these children would, however, only be adopted internationally. When asked why, she said that many of these children were children of Gypsies and they had darker skin and were not accepted by society. This just made me cringe especially as these children are healthy and children who are only being prevented a family because of the color of their skin. I would have loved to have tucked these children into my bags and taken them home and shown them the love they deserve.

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CICIG requests explanation from US Senator Landrieu regarding illegal adoption comments in Guatemala

FRIDAY, 29 APRIL 2011 07:18 THE GUATEMALA TIMES

CICIG REQUESTS PUBLIC EXPLANATION FROM SENATOR LANDRIEU (LOUISIANA STATE, U.S.A.) CONCERNING COMMENTS MADE ON REPORT OF ILLEGAL ADOPTIONS IN GUATEMALA. During her visit to Guatemala, the Senator met with various authorities responsible for child protection and manifested her disagreement with the CICIG´s report on criminal structures involved in illegal adoptions.

Guatemala, 27 April 2011. The Guatemalan media edition of Prensa Libre, dated 26 April 2011 (pages 4 and 5), published a story about the visit of U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu which reads: “Landrieu said she does not share all of CICIG´s findings presented in a report in late 2010, detailing abnormalities in the adoption processes which are still in transition between the previous and the current law."

The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala publicly requests Senator Landrieu to provide evidence to the Guatemalan society on which she bases her comments to disqualify the content of the “Report on actors involved in the process of illegal adoptions in Guatemala." She was also invited to explain to the Guatemalan society her position concerning the numerous adoptions of children illegally taken away from their biological parents.