Adoption law to be changed before autumn

Adoption law to be changed before autumn

Romanians based abroad will qualify for adopting children from the country. The new law will shorten processing terms.

published in issue 4473 page 5 at 2009-07-16

Romanian nationals based abroad will be allowed to adopt children from Romania, adoption processing terms will be shortened and special adoption management offices will be set up following amendments to Law 273/2005 on the legal regime of adoptions to be adopted at the end of September, according to ‘Ziua’ daily. ‘There are many applications filed under Law 49/2009 stipulating that the inter-country adoption of a child already declared adoptable may only be approved in the situation where the adopting parent is the child’s next of kin up to the 3rd degree, Bogdan Panait, Secretary of State at the Romanian Adoptions Office, has stated. He further noted that, for the time being, the authorities were not considering the ‘liberalisation’ of international adoptions because such a thing could only happen when we have a very thoroughly regulated domestic adoption system and post-adoption procedures. According to the official, the new law will offer ways to expedite the processing of the adoption of children already declared fit for adoption. Romania currently has a total of 22,000 children in residential care and 20,000 in foster care, most of who have families and may not be offered for adoption, the source further explained. ‘Our intention is that all those children who are taken into care and who cannot be reunited with their families or extended families should be declared fit for adoption. It’s abnormal for an infant who is left behind in the maternity hospital to be raised by foster parents until coming of age’, Panait said. Only 1,000 children are currently adoptable in Romania. The number of families cleared for adoption is 2,500. The procedure is rather difficult, taking 15 months on the average.

by Adelina Mihut

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