On Wednesday the Romanian Parliament voted for changing the adoption law. I have not yet been able to finish reading all the amendments, but it is clear that this would be a start in opening the doors.

It is now up to President Basescu to sign this amendment.

Will he keep his word?

‘Anyone can lobby in Brussels or anywhere else, but Romania will not change its adoption legislation, at least not as long as I am the President’

Press conference – 22 April 2010 – of EC President José Manuel Barroso and Romanian President Traian Basescu:

Wednesday, 22 March 2006, 3:58 pm
Cable: Wikileaks
Ref: 06THEHAGUE617

VZCZCXRO8264
RR RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLZ
DE RUEHTC #0617 0811558
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 221558Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY THE HAGUE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5172
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUEHBM/AMEMBASSY BUCHAREST 1111
RUEHSF/AMEMBASSY SOFIA 0418
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 2840
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS 0270

UNCLAS THE HAGUE 000617

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL CASC EU RO NL
SUBJECT: NETHERLANDS: PENDING ADOPTION CASES IN ROMANIA

REF: STATE 43700

1. (SBU) Poloff delivered reftel demarche March 21 to MFA
Western and Central Europe policy officer Mara van der Poel,
who handles accession issues for Romania and Bulgaria. The
GONL is satisfied with the Romanian adoption law, which it
believes (despite our arguments) is in conformity with
international and EU conventions. Van der Poel cited
European Commission reports that indicated Romania had the
capacity to adopt needy children internally. Regarding
pending cases, she said that the GONL was satisfied with the
European Commission’s call for the Romanian government to
inform applicants of the status of their cases.

2. (SBU) When pressed by poloff, van der Poel said that,
frankly, the Romanian accession process faces hurdles which
are far more pressing that the adoption issue (for example,
corruption). She said that the GONL does not feel this is an
issue on which the Romanians should be distracted.
ARNALL

In my book Romania for Export Only I mentioned the letter sent by then US Deputy Secetary of State Richard Armitage to European Commissioner Gunter Verheugen.

Tuesday, 4 May 2004

A letter from US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage to Commissioner Verheugen. This man had already been quoted some weeks ago in an article in the Herald Tribune, with as headline:

‘ROMANIA: LET YOUR CHILDREN GO’

In his letter to Verheugen, Armitage now spoke of ‘common interest of the EU and the US in reform of child protection and adoption’. He proposed to form ‘a joint front to clarify with the Romanian PM that the EU does not ask for a ban on adoptions’.

Wikileaks published the cable with the reply of the European Commission.

And as you will see, no EU/US joint front:

Source: http://wikileaks.org

Viewing cable 04BRUSSELS2496, VERHEUGEN RESPONSE TO DEPUTY SECRETARY ON ROMANIAN

If you are new to these pages, please read an introduction on the structure of a cable as well as how to discuss them with others. See also the FAQs

Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin

04BRUSSELS2496 2004-06-10 12:56 2011-08-30 01:44 CONFIDENTIAL Embassy Brussels

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

101256Z Jun 04

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRUSSELS 002496

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/10/2014

TAGS: PREL CASC CVIS RO EUN USEU BRUSSELS

SUBJECT: VERHEUGEN RESPONSE TO DEPUTY SECRETARY ON ROMANIAN

ADOPTIONS

Classified By: Rick Holtzapple, PolOff, Reason 1.4 B/D

¶1. (U) The cabinet of Enlargement Commissioner Gunter

Verheugen has faxed us a letter from the Commissioner to

Deputy Secretary Armitage, replying to the Deputy Secretary’s

letter of May 4 on the issue of Romanian adoptions. The full

text of the letter is in para 3 below, and a copy of the

original fax with signature has been faxed to EUR/ERA and

Embassy Bucharest.

¶2. (C) The letter confirms what we already know from the copy

of the report from the Commission to the GoR on the issue

that was provided to Embassy Bucharest. The Commission’s

legal experts have told the Romanian government that the

“proposed approach to pursue on the policy of intercountry

adoptions with a very limited exception” is seen as

“essentially in line” with the EU’s demands.

¶3. (U) Beginning of Text:

Dear Mr. Secretary of State,

Thank you for your letter of 4 May 2004 on the issue of

intercountry adoptions from Romania.

I would like to clarify that the European Commission is not

against intercountry adoption as such. However, the UN

Convention on the Rights of the Child foresees that

inter-country adoption may be considered only if the child

cannot be placed in a foster or an adoptive family or cannot

in any suitable manner be cared for in the child’s country of

origin. This “last resort” provision is consonant with the

provision in the UN convention that refers to the

“desirability of continuity in a child’s upbringing and to

the child’s ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic

background.”

All Member States of the EU have ratified the UN Convention

on the Rights of the Child and therefore should respect the

above mentioned principles. Therefore the Commission

considers that the moratorium on intercountry adoptions is

necessary as long as no legislation is in force that fully

complies with this convention, and as long as no

administrative capacity exists to implement this legislation.

Following Prime Minister Nastase’s request for legal advice

on children’s rights and adoption, the Commission set up an

Independent Panel of EU Member State experts on family law.

In its latest report, which I have forwarded to Prime

Minister Nastase, the Panel noted the fundamental change made

by Romania on the issue of intercountry adoption. The

proposed approach to pursue on the policy of intercountry

adoptions with a very limited exception was considered

essentially in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of

the Child.

Our primordial focus must be on getting the system of child

care in Romania right so that we get tot he usual situation

in the Member States of the EU where international adoptions

are the exception. Therefore, the EU has supported Romania

in its efforts to improve the quality of public care for

children. This meant that large residential establishments

were closed down and replaced with a selection of child

protection alternatives ranging from smaller homes and foster

care to day-care centres. Of course there remains work to be

done, but Romania surely has come a long way in resolving the

issue of children in public care.

I have been informed that recently a videoconference on this

issue was held between the Washington State Department and my

services, and that it was considered useful to have both

sides express their respective positions.

Yours sincerely,

/S/

‘Reads like a thriller’, she said.

And she was curious about the follow-up. Will there be a happy ending?

That remains to be seen…

A bit of follow-up can already be seen at

Search a Chil, Pay Cash, the Adoption Lobby (September 2009):

http://www.romania-forexportonly.eu/2009/09/suche-kind-zahle-bar/

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.

As we know, the Adoption Lobby is, despite its public exposure, continuing like before.

Translation – German text HERE

The Romanian “adoption industry”

EU official Roelie Post (right) talking to a couple who adopted a Romanian child

After the collapse of socialism and the Soviet bloc many children were mediated abroad for adoption. But behind the humanitarian goals were often entrenched economic interests, some organizations earned per child up to 20,000 dollars and donated plenty to local “organizations” that provided children from the childrens’ homes.Romania developed in 1989 to a children’s country of export. A regular “adoption industry” rich western countries was established. That led to cases like  Marineta Ciofu whose child disappeared without her consent. In this way, more than 30,000 Romanian children were placed abroad.
 
As a result, Romania decided in 2004 fully against international adoption and since then supports families in need directly, so they are no longer dependent on homes. The adoption organizations, especially those from the United States, were against these storm of regulations. The Romanian government was and is since then under enormous pressure from lobbyists. Even the NATO accession of Romania has been linked to the issue of foreign adoptions, is announced by the former EU enlargement Commissioner Gunther Verheugen.

Watch on Tuesday 12 April 2011, 23.00 o’clock a film by Golineh Atai. The author shows how the system of international adoptions functions and how political pressure is applied to facilitate the business with children.

This morning I read that quote in the UK Daily Mail Online: The scandal of orphanages in tourist resorts and disaster zones that rent children to fleece gullible Westerners.

A part from the adoption lobby, that’s what I found the most incredible when visiting the Romanian ‘orphanages’: the orphan tourism and the omnipresence of foreigners. More and more children’s homes were set up by foreigners, often with the goal of ‘saving’ children for adoption.

Quote from Romania for Export Only – the untold story of the Romanian ‘orphans’:

31 March 2001

We saw the usual huge leagan with hundreds of babies and again the local TV crew was awaiting us there. We also visited a ‘private baby home’ run by a religious US adoption NGO, where thirty-five children were sung American lullabies by American volunteers. The villa had many rooms cramped with baby cribs, while the walls were decorated with pictures of children adopted to the US and Christian slogans.

This was in great contrast with the next visit, a family-type home run by the Romanian Orthodox Church. From the outside it did not differ from other houses in the village. Children would live at this home for as long as needed, but kept in close contact with their families and were returned whenever possible. Even though run by nuns, the Orthodox religion was present just like in most Romanian homes, an icon at the wall.

Later in the afternoon we visited a centrul de plasament that was supposed to be a good example of a restructured institution. Indeed, the large building had been divided up into modules for eight children each, family-type as they called it. The decorations were totally overdone and the place looked more like Disneyland. On top of that most toys and even the bed sheets had the Renault logo. After everything we had seen, this was too much. We separated ourselves from the staff for a while, as we could not stop laughing.

Everywhere we went we had discussed child protection, especially closure of institutions, foster care and adoption. Closure was not on the agenda here. According to Tabacaru’s reform plans, preference was given to create family-type modules in the centrul de plasament. And foster care was mainly used as pre-adoption measure, paid by adoption NGOs.

In private many people admitted it was not easy for Romanians to adopt and the healthy children were ‘saved’ for abroad. The selection of children by foreigners was sometimes very thorough. The Israeli, for example, were nicknamed ‘the vampires’ as they took blood samples of adoptable children, which were analysed in Israel before they were accepted.

From Hotnews.ro 
 
Baconschi
Photo: Agerpres
The Romanian Government’s position not to allow the resumption of international adoptions remains firm, although there is ”lobbying” from several European countries and the U.S., said Foreign Minister Baconschi on Sunday to Pro TV, according to Mediafax.

 Asked about the note from Wikileaks  referring to international adoptions, the chief diplomat said that this issue has remained on the U.S. agenda, but the government in Bucharest has set a different policy line.

“We stopped international adoptions, and it was good that we did. There were discussions about cases already started, which normally should have been completed, but there were no problems, “ he said referring to international adoption cases initiated and not completed mentioned by the Wikileaks note.

Asked if there were explicit requests to resume international adoptions, the Foreign Minister admitted ”Yes, of course. And now we have lobbyists from several European countries and from our American friends in this direction, but the Government’s position is firm: we will not resume international adoptions”.

Wikileaks about the ‘pipeline cases’:  01/12/2010

Wikileaks about US visa waiver/re-opening adoptions: 28/03/2011

Sunday, 11 June 2000
On the Internet I found an interesting report from the UN Rapporteur on the Sale of Children on intercountry adoptions from Guatemala. It said legal adoptions appeared to be the exception rather than the rule…
‘Since huge profits can be made, the child has become an object of commerce, rather than the focus of the law. Trafficking of babies and young children for inter-country adoption exists on a large scale. The system lends itself to the nefarious practice of reducing children to commercial objects to be offered to the highest bidders.’
The report also mentioned ‘casas de engordeza’, fattening houses, where babies were kept while the adoption process went through. Falsification of documents was common. Sounded like Romania, Guatemala.

Since then, both Romania and Guatemala have reformed their adoptions systems and intercountry adoptions are as good as stopped.

Both countries are under continuous pressure to re-open the export of their children.

There is, however, an important difference between Romania and Guatemala. In Guatemala, unlike in Romania, the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) investigated the child trafficking networks that used illegal adoption procedures, identified the actors and how in they operated. Some quotes from the CICIG report: 

Full report can be read HERE.

• In criminal cases, the Guatemalan Penal Code characterizes trafficking in persons for illegal adoption purposes as a crime, like other similar behaviors, such as irregular adoptions and irregular adoption proceedings.  It is important to remember that when adoption networks act, they also commit a series of crimes such as money laundering, active and passive bribery or misrepresentation, to name but a few. 
• This explains the creation of transnational organized crime networks, which aroused the concern of international bodies, particularly the United Nations, and the suspension of international adoption proceedings of Guatemalan children by some European countries, by resolution of the European Parliament. 
• This reflects how, when there is no clear legislation or strict controls by State institutions, the meaning of adoption changes. Priority is given to the will of the adopter at any cost and by any means, putting it ahead of the best interests of the child. 
• However, contrary to what is set out in the Hague Convention,  in some countries, after the adoptive parents expressed their desire to adopt a child, international adoption agencies contacted their facilitators and/or representatives, who were given the task of finding a child that had the characteristics demanded by the adoptive parents. Over the years, some agencies set up representatives, offices and adoption programs to facilitate their work in children’s countries of origin. This meant that some of the international adoption agencies looked for countries with weak legislation, few controls or easily corruptible authorities, with a view to undertaking a large number of adoptions of children from those countries.

Prosecutions, although still piecemeal, are underway.

But the children who were literally robbed from their mothers arms, have not been returned.  Foundation Sobrevivientes is calling for justice, read about it here  (in Spanish).

 

Therefore, the State is required to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for trafficking of children in connection with irregular adoption proceedings.

It should also be noted that trafficking in persons for illegal adoption and related offenses are prosecutable criminal activities under the Law on Organized Crime, which includes other crimes linked to this activity, such as obstruction of justice and conspiracy, and establishes special investigative means which seek, as the purpose of criminal policy, not only the punishment of members of these criminal structures, but dismantling the same.

Thursday, 27 July 2006

[...]
According to the Bucharest Daily News, President Bush and President Basescu had discussed the possible lifting of the visa obligation for Romanian citizens. President Bush had said the visa regime for Romanian visitors might become a bit more flexible, but he had not given his green light. However, according to some members of the Romanian delegation, the visa obligation would not be lifted as long as the moratorium on international adoptions would remain.