With which countries will Flanders still cooperate for adoption? Stricter screening must prevent abuses

With which countries will Flanders still cooperate for adoption? The government decided this morning that potential partner countries will be subject to a risk analysis. Countries that fail will be deleted.

In 2019, stories about abuses with adoptions from Ethiopia woke up Flanders: some adopted 'orphans' later turned out not to be orphans at all.

As a result, an expert panel looked into the adoption process. They presented their report in early September. On their advice, Flemish Minister of Welfare Wouter Beke (CD&V) proposed a two-year adoption break to review the system. Minister Beke had to withdraw that proposal after criticism from coalition partners N-VA and Open Vld. But a system was devised to prevent fraud in the future.

In concrete terms, it will no longer be the adoption services but the Flemish Adoption Center (VCA) that will screen all partner countries. Six criteria have now been drawn up for this. Countries must first and foremost have signed and ratified the Hague Adoption Convention. That 2005 treaty makes adoption a right to protection for children, not a right to children for parents.

RECEPTION FIRST IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY

Flanders also wants adoption to be part of the wider care and reception system of partner countries. They will have to demonstrate that they have tried to take in children in their own country first, primarily through the child's biological family. In order to prevent financial fraud, the financial flows surrounding adoption in the partner countries will be examined.

Another criterion is that there must be a legal framework for adoption: this should make it easier for adoptees at a later age to obtain information about origin. In addition, Flanders would prefer to cooperate with governments and not with just a local orphanage, for example. Although the latter does not seem to be a conclusive criterion: Flanders only wants to investigate whether governments are 'willing' to cooperate from government to government.

In 2020, 23 children were adopted in Flanders from ten countries: Burkina Faso, the Philippines, Gambia, Haiti, India, Morocco, Portugal, Thailand, Togo and South Africa. It is difficult to predict whether all these countries will pass the test. Although behind the scenes there is an expectation that some countries will lose weight.

TRAUMAS

The stricter screening of the partner countries is the first step in the reform of the adoption process after the expert report. Later in this term, an internal reform of the Belgian adoption process will follow.

“It is our absolute priority to further exclude the risk of abuse and child trafficking, to avoid future traumas and at the same time to continue to give children from other countries, who need it, the opportunity to find a suitable home in our country in the future. ”, says Minister Beke.

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