Couple Claims Adoption Agency Embroiled Them in Child-Trafficking Scheme (EAC/Uganda)
Couple Claims Adoption Agency Embroiled Them in Child-Trafficking Scheme
February 1, 2017ELLEN ROBINSON
(CN) – A Greenville, South Carolina, couple claim they were duped by an adoption agency into believing the Ugandan children they planned to adopt had been relinquished by their mother, only to find themselves enmeshed in a human-trafficking scheme.
In a complaint filed in the Greenville County Court of Common Pleas on Jan. 27, Tyler and Allie Sloan say they contacted defendants European Adoption Consultants and Debra Parris, the director of its African adoption program, in December 2014, and after a preliminary meeting, were accepted to participate in the defendant’s program.
As recounted in the complaint, 14 months passed, and then, in February 2016, Parris told them two children were available for them to adopt: a 7-year-old girl and 2-year-old boy.
The Sloans claim Parris explained at the time that the children’s father had died, and that their mother was relinquishing them.
They say Parris and EAC assured them then and later, that an independent inquiry had been conducted to verify the status of the children.
Based of those assurances, the Sloans began the legal adoption process in Uganda, and in April 2016, they travelled to the African nation and stayed six weeks to pursue a guardianship of the children and move the adoption process forward.
The Sloans say it was only later, in the fall of 2016, that they learned numerous children adopted by U.S. families had been returned to Uganda because EAC had failed to perform proper investigations of the children’s adoption status.
They say they were further shocked to find out the children they had by now bonded with had been classified by the U.S. State Department and the Ugandan government as being trafficked children.
This classification was based in a Ugandan government investigation that found the two children and others in the adoption program had been the subject of bribes, fraudulent inducement of their parents’ consent, and the falsification of documents that were later used to deceive the U.S. government and others regarding the children’s eligibility for adoption and immigration.
The agency received notice of a three year debarment resulting in its loss of accreditation as an international child placing agency. In its charge against EAC, the U.S. Department of State demanded the agency to cease all adoption processes, including the Sloan’s case.
The Sloans say be the time they discovered all this information they’d spent tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours trying to adopt the two children.
They’ve since demanded EAC reimburse them for all the money they spent on the adoption process, but they claim the agency has yet to respond.
They are seeking unspecified damages on claims of negligence, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, misrepresentation, and unfair trade practices.
They are represented by W. Harold Christian Jr. of Greenville.
A representative of European Adoption Consultants did not immediately respond to a phone call requesting comment.
.