Babies become latest export commodity in number of developing countries

Babies have become the latest export commodity in a number of developing countries where organisations engaged in unscrupulous adoption practices have mushroomed.

The cover of Der Spiegel which carried Strieder's investigation: Adopting Third World babies

The heavy diamond ring and the flashy jewellery worn by the elegantly dressed white skinned lady stepping out of the immigration ring at Frankfurt's busy Rhein-Main airport juxtaposed sharply with the pale, weak and undernourished baby she was carrying in her arms.

The human cargo was to be delivered to the expectant German foster parents who were anxiously waiting outside to receive the tiny passenger. The cold and dismal winter weather greeting the infant on its arrival in Germany was a severe contrast to the hot and sticky air of Bombay from where it had been picked up.

Babies have become the latest export commodity in a number of developing countries where organisations engaged in unscrupulous adoption practices have mushroomed. The middle class childless couples in many West European countries, notably the Federal Republic of Germany, have found a convenient way to fulfil their lifetime ambition to have a child - they simply adopt one from poor countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Thailand.

The ever-sprouting slums of big cities like Bombay, Calcutta, Colombo or Bangkok are potential breeding grounds for this trade. The growing demand in West European countries and the abundance of supply in the Third World countries have made trafficking in babies, a flourishing trade with agents and middlemen out to exploit the situation and make a fast buck.

A survey carried out recently by a German church organisation revealed that some 50,000 orphaned children were found in the orphan homes of Calcutta alone. The overall orphan population in India is large enough to cater to the needs of childless couples in the entire West.

Childless Couples: The rich industrialised West went through a decline in population in the '70s - a decade of prosperity and social enlightenment for many, coupled with all the sophisticated means of family control. Many childless couples began to experience an emptiness in their lives and because they would not or could not have children of their own, preferred to adopt a child from one of the developing countries.

Most German couples would prefer to adopt white children but since this is not easy, the next step is to adopt a child from a Third World country. Displaying a dark-skinned child in a family group picture has become the 'in' thing in many Nordic countries.

German psychologists and sociologists have tried to explain this trend by pointing out that many of these couples come from well-to-do circles and take pride in calling themselves liberal, projecting a Weltanschaung (philosophy of life) which stretches far beyond the frontiers of their native country and embraces the whole world.

In many cases, the poverty stricken mothers are offered money as compensation to part with their children.

A large number of children from many Third World countries arrive in the Federal Republic of Germany through agencies whose credentials are questionable. A fraction of the adoption cases do pass through officially recognised agencies like the Terre des Hommes, Pro Infante or the International Social Service - all of which meticulously sieve adoption requests and rigidly verify the bonafides of prospective foster parents to ensure minimisation of risks and maximisation of compatability between the parent and adopted child.

Recognised agencies operate on the principle of genuinely wanting to help the child. An adoption case is processed only when the child to be adopted cannot be first helped in its own native country. These agencies claim that the objective pursued by them is to bring the parents to the child and not the child to the parents. But some German parents simply do not have the patience to stand the rigours of the protracted battle against red tape in their endeavour to adopt a child.

Unofficial Agencies: The easiest way out of this nerve-racking bureaucratic encounter is to avail the services of an adoption agency whose promises of "home delivery services of the baby of your choice" would make the exorbitant sums of fee charged by them look like small change. "The cute looking baby with the big black rolling eyes", as a "baby catalogue" propagates, is a very strong temptation which few German parents can resist.

A German couple can obtain a baby in less than three weeks through dubious means as compared to the gruelling agony of completing the entire mountain of paperwork which would entail anything between six months and two years. More than 1,000 children from Third World countries, including India, land on German soil through the services of other non-recognised agencies.

Neighbouring Holland has become the hotbed for the flourishing trafficking of babies. Dutch agencies have been very successful in supplying babies to German parents, notwithstanding the opposition from Church organisations and social workers both in Holland and the Federal Republic of Germany.

Swantje Strieder, a journalist working for the leading West German magazine Der Spiegel, who investigated the sources of babies sent from the Third World to Western Europe, especially to the Federal Republic of Germany, discovered the offices of several agencies in Holland which offer children to prospective German parents. One such organisation is called Flash ("Foundation, Life, Adoption Services and Happiness"). Flash specialises in quick supply of children, unlike the official agencies which thoroughly screen the background of the would-be parents.

According to Strieder, the process of adoption of Sri Lankan babies starts after Dammas Hordijk, the director of Flash, instructs the prospective parents to leave for Colombo from where they are to pick up the baby. Although the couple arrive as ordinary tourists in Colombo, they are given a warm reception by the Sri Lankan Flash representative.

The representative, who herds together all such German and Dutch "tourists", ensures that they are all well looked after and put up in five-star hotels. Meanwhile, the agents set the adoption ball rolling while the visitors go sightseeing.

The first meeting - which the Flash representative calls "the feeling of being parents" - between the infant and the foster parents takes place in a lawyer's office, where the baby is dressed and fed by them.

The next day, the couple, dressed in their best, arrive at the office of the commissioner - who apparently attaches considerable importance to outward appearances - who seals the adoption a la Sri Lanka. Flash collects a neat sum equivalent to Rs 13,000 (Ferre des Hommes, the official agency, takes only Rs 14.000) for the adoption. The entire package tour of Sri Lanka, including the adoption fee, costs the new parents about Rs 44,000.

Terre des Homines is critical of the methods employed by the Flash agents in Sri Lanka. In many cases, Ferre des Hommes maintains, the poverty stricken mothers of the children are offered money as compensation to part with their children.

Flash agents in Sri Lanka also do a lot of "scouting" work, keeping an eye particularly on single expectant mothers who have to live with the stigma of giving birth to an illegitimate child, since the orthodox Buddhist society would never accept them.

Legal Hurdles: Flash is not the only adoption agency of its kind operating in Sri Lanka. There are Scandinavian, Australian and Swiss organisations which supply children to their respective countries. Names like Angels' Home, Love, Bliss and Heavenly Abode - pompous and lofty as they may sound - have a propensity to go underground as quickly as they surface.

A dozen similar organisations have sprouted in Holland, each competing against the other for the rich German market, even though they are considered illegal under German law.

When German parents adopt Third Word children, the adoption is initially not recognised under German law. The interpretation of the crucial paragraph 328 of the German Civil Law is that an overseas adoption is "accepted" but not recognised, irrespective of whether the adoption took place through dubious agents or officially recognised agencies.

This non-recognition of adoption is circumvented by a legal ruse called the "second adoption" - the foster parents adopt the child for the second time, this time under German law. Again, this ruse, used by many, entails long-winded procedures and paperwork, all aimed at establishing the bonafides of the case and cementing the moral, legal and financial commitment of the parents.

While it is fashionable in most developing countries to voice criticism at the adoption practices, very little if anything is done about the root causes which lie in the grinding poverty and unjust income distribution. Germans themselves are aghast at the problems of the poor countries and are working out ways and means of stopping clandestine adoptions.

The apex organisation of the youth offices in the Federal Republic of Germany has recommended that rigid checks of these children be instituted on their arrival and German courts be asked to intensify their checks on adoption cases.

Many official agencies have prescribed that the native countries of the adopted children insist on seeing a report from the youth offices on the suitability of the foster parents before approving the adoption.

These recommendations, undoubtedly well-meaning, are likely to be largely ineffective as long as the poor South is unable to feed its hungry masses. Agents and middlemen will always find ways of evading the hurdles being set up and no amount of bureaucratic safeguards can deter them. A hungry stomach is after all the easiest catch in the corruption net.