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Six Vietnamese officials sentenced to jail over fraudulent adoptions

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2009/0930/1224255526541.html

CLIFFORD COONAN

Wed, Sep 30, 2009

SIX VIETNAMESE health officials and charity workers in the northern province of Nam Dinh have been sentenced to jail for arranging over 300 fraudulent adoptions.

The six were jailed for two to four and a half years for “abuse of power”, said Nguyen Tien Hung, vice-president of the Nam Dinh People’s Court.

While the vast majority of adoptions from Vietnam are legitimate, there have been question marks over some unscrupulous operators after the US embassy in Hanoi last year accused the Vietnamese authorities of failing to properly control the country’s adoption system, and said it had found evidence of corruption, fraud and baby-selling.

Among those convicted from the fraud ring, which operated from 2005 to July 2008, were two heads of provincial welfare centres, doctors, nurses and local officials.

Vu Dinh Ky, former head of a commune medical centre, received 28 million dong (€1,078) for faking the documents of 14 newborn children. Local media reported him telling the court “it was just to help the babies”. He was sentenced to four and a half years in jail, while his counterpart Tran Thi Luong in Y Yen District got three and a half years.

The officials were found to have filed false papers to allow as many as 266 babies from poor families to be adopted, many by parents in France, Italy and the US. Ten other people received suspended sentences of 15 to 18 months.

Sentencing, the judges said the ring’s actions had defamed the central government and adversely affected its humanitarian policy.

Following the US accusations, Vietnam subsequently suspended a bilateral adoption agreement. An investigation by US authorities found that some agencies in the US had paid €6,800 in “donations” per child to orphanages, after officials had forged birth certificates and wrongly identified the infants as abandoned.

Concerns over Vietnamese adoption monitoring led the Irish adoption authorities not to renew a bilateral adoption agreement with Vietnam earlier this year, and Minister for Children Barry Andrews said he wanted to wait for a new Unicef report on the process before signing a new agreement.

Fine Gael has asked the Government to introduce an interim adoption agreement to allow couples already cleared for the process to adopt Vietnamese children.

The Vietnamese government is drafting a new adoption law which would delegate the ministry of justice as the only agency with the authority to introduce children to adoptive parents and to issue official adoption decisions, the Thanh Nien daily reported this week.

Six jailed for Vietnam baby fraud

Six Vietnamese have been sentenced to jail for arranging more than 300 fraudulent adoptions, an official said.

The six were jailed for two to four-and-a-half years for "abuse of power", court official Nguyen Tien Hung said.

Among those convicted were two heads of provincial welfare centres, doctors, nurses and local officials.

They were found to have filed false papers to allow babies from poor families to be adopted, many by parents in France, Italy and the US.

Ten other people received suspended sentences of 15 to 18 months.

They came from the province of Nam Dinh, south of Hanoi.

The falsified papers said the babies had been abandoned, making them eligible for adoption by foreign parents, the prosecutors said.

The group was operating from 2005 to July 2008, when the two key suspects were arrested.

The case came to light last year after the US embassy in Hanoi accused Vietnam of failing to police its adoption system, allowing corruption, fraud and baby-selling to flourish.

The US report led Vietnam to end a bilateral adoption agreement.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/8280088.stm

Published: 2009/09/29 08:56:38 GMT

© BBC MMX

Egypt jails US 'adoption' couples

By Christian Fraser
BBC News, Cairo

Two US couples have been jailed in Egypt for two years for trying to illegally adopt children.

Iris Botros and her husband Louis Andros had been offered orphaned twins by a Coptic Christian church in Cairo.

When they applied to take the children out of the country they were arrested for child trafficking.

A second couple, Suzan Hagoulf and her husband Medhat Metyas, were also sentenced along with several officials from the orphanage.

The case has laid bare the tangle of Egypt's complicated adoption system based on Islamic law.

In Egypt the adopting couple must be Egyptian, the name of the child must not be changed and the children should not be removed from the country.

But customs are less clear when it comes to the Coptic minority.

In this case the court heard that a church orphanage in Cairo had supplied forged documents that Iris Botros had given birth to twins.

Cash donation

The couple had donated $4,500 (£2,700) to the orphanage.

When they tried to get passports for the babies, whom they renamed Victoria and Alexander, embassy officials became suspicious.

Faced with a DNA test, Botros, of joint US and Egyptian nationality, admitted she wasn't the biological mother.

Suzan Hagoulf, who also has joint nationality, and her Egyptian husband Medhat Metyas had adopted children from the same orphanage more than a year ago.

Three workers from the orphanage, including a nun, were all jailed for five years.

The couples' relatives say they were not aware they were doing anything wrong and that they had reportedly asked if the process was legal and had been assured that it was.

In the past, authorities have been known to turn a blind eye to this kind of practice but this case is perhaps being used to show the government is tough on child trafficking.

Certainly it has sparked a wider debate, with one MP calling for Egypt to reconsider the laws pertaining to orphans and adoption.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/8261444.stm

Published: 2009/09/17 15:17:50 GMT

© BBC MMX

Elton 'cannot adopt in Ukraine'

Sir Elton John cannot adopt a 14-month-old boy because he is not married and too old, a Ukrainian minister has said.

The star, 62, said on Saturday that he hoped to adopt a boy, named Lev, whom he met while visiting an orphanage.

But government minister Yuriy Pavlenko told the Associated Press that the age difference between an adoptive parent and a child must be 45 years or less.

Sir Elton's civil partnership with David Furnish would not be recognised as a marriage in Ukraine, he added.

“ The law is the same for everybody - for a president, for a minister, for Elton John ”
Yuriy Pavlenko

"Foreign citizens who are single have no right to adopt children... and the age difference between the adopter and the child cannot be more than 45 years," family, youth and sports minister Mr Pavlenko said.

"The law is the same for everybody - for a president, for a minister, for Elton John."

However, the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse in Kiev says the question of whether Sir Elton's civil partnership can be recognised in Ukraine could still depend partly on politics.

Ukraine is entering election season and the issue of foreign adoptions is a sensitive one, he says.

If Sir Elton decides to proceed in the face of government opposition, the presidential candidates in next January's race could still sink his bid, he adds.

On Saturday, Sir Elton said at a press conference in Ukraine that the boy - whom he met at an orphanage for children whose lives had been affected by Aids and HIV - had "stolen my heart".

He and partner Furnish, 46, had always "talked about adoption", he said.

"David always wanted to adopt a child and I always said 'no' because I am 62 and I think because of the travelling I do and the life I have, maybe it wouldn't be fair for the child.

"But having seen Lev today, I would love to adopt him. I don't know how we do that but he has stolen my heart.

"And he has stolen David's heart and it would be wonderful if we can have a home. I've changed my mind today."

Sir Elton and filmmaker Furnish toured the orphanage as part of the singer's work with the Elton John Aids Foundation.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/8255327.stm

Published: 2009/09/14 17:30:29 GMT

© BBC MMX

Adoptions Associates challenges allegations it improperly charged prospective parents

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/08/adoptions_associates_challenge.html

By The Grand Rapids Press

August 10, 2009, 6:15PM

GEORGETOWN TOWNSHIP -- The state is investigating allegations that a local private adoption agency illegally asked prospective parents for donations to cover budget shortfalls, did not clearly explain its fees, and handled grievances improperly.

The allegations against Adoptions Associates Inc. are outlined in a special report done by a state licensing consultant and provided to The Press by the Michigan Department of Human Services.

The findings have been challenged in writing by officials at the Georgetown Township-based agency, who call the accusations "seriously flawed" and "inaccurate."

DHS spokeswoman Colleen Steinman said officials are reviewing the state licensing consultant's report and the agency's response and will decide what, if any, action to take.

"We are looking at and weighing the evidence," Steinman said.

Jane Bareman, executive director of the not-for-profit Adoption Associates, said she has disputed the findings "line by line."

"It's very unfortunate the report has (been made public) because it is not in its complete stages," Bareman said.

The consultant's report alleges prospective parents were told the agency had a $500,000 budget shortfall because of economic conditions and might close, suspend work on adoptions, and be unable to offer refunds if clients did not pay an additional amount ranging from $1,250 and $2,500. The report alleges the agency solicited and accepted the fees as contributions, which is illegal.

But Bareman said the agency was forced to raise its fees after layoffs and salary and benefit cuts did not cover budget shortfalls.

"The amount of money we requested ... that was a fee for the services we are performing for our client ... it is not a contribution," Bareman said. "Yes, we added a fee, however, our fee schedule ... always states fees are subject to change at any time."

Bareman said the agency, which has been in business since 1991, has been struggling because many of the countries they work with, especially China, have been restricting adoptions and the faltering economy has kept new clients from signing up.

"Agencies across the country are struggling. I know of 82 that have closed their doors," Bareman said.

The consultant's report also alleges the agency did not clearly spell out fees or handle grievances properly. Bareman said the agency was accused of similar violations in 2002 and 2003, and those allegations were not upheld by the state.

Bareman's agency assists prospective parents with domestic and international adoptions. State law -- and many foreign countries -- requires adoptive parents to use a licensed private or public agency.

The state investigation was initiated after several clients complained, Steinman said.

Bareman believes the complaints came from parents who were "unhappy" with delays in adoptions from China, a country that has drastically reduced its number of adoptions.

Bareman said the agency currently has about 400 clients and has placed 200 children this year, including 28 with special needs.

E-mail Kyla King: kking@grpress.com

A Dad's Adoption Nightmare

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20287202,00.html

By NINA BURLEIGH

After Bringing Home a Child from Samoa, Mike Nyberg Learned She Had a Loving Family Back Home

Standing with his video camera at the Auckland, New Zealand, airport in February 2004, Mike Nyberg watched the adoption agency worker lead in a saucer-eyed 4-year-old wearing a dirty blue dress and clutching a rubber ball. She was crying, but that didn't surprise the adoptive father in light of the heartbreaking story the agency had told him and his wife—that the girl had been abandoned by her destitute parents in Samoa and left in an orphanage. Under the circumstances, "there's not a child on the planet that wouldn't act this way," Mike recalls thinking. Still, he noticed, as she wept, she repeated a single word: "Tupu."

Back home in Spanish Fork, Utah, the Nybergs asked what it meant. In broken English, over the next weeks, the daughter they'd named Elleia explained: Tupu was her mother. She also had a father, Isaia, and seven brothers and sisters with whom she'd happily lived until the night a stranger took her away. Stunned but determined to find out more, the Mormon couple arranged for a missionary friend to visit Elleia's village; some months later he confirmed her story. "At first I was angry—who would do this?" Mike, 41, says. "Then I was sad and scared. What were we going to do?"

It was an adoptive parent's worst nightmare—and the Nybergs weren't alone. In a massive adoption-fraud case that involved more than 60 Samoan children and nearly 60 American families, federal prosecutors charged in 2007 that Focus on Children, an adoption agency in Wellsville, Utah, falsely represented to Samoan parents that their children would go on an extended study-abroad program—then put those children up for adoption. Earlier this year agency owners Karen and Scott Banks and three employees pleaded to lesser charges; they were sentenced to probation and banned from adoption work. The two governments also cut a deal: Samoa wouldn't challenge the adoptions, and the U.S. ordered the defendants to put up money for a fund to foster relationships between the children and their Samoan families. All but a few of the American parents have declined to comment (see boxes). The Nybergs were the only ones known to have returned their child.

For the Nybergs, who had struggled to add a third child to their brood, the connection to Elleia was instant. Learning of Focus on Children through their religious community, Mike, a financial planner who paid the agency $13,000, recalls gazing at her photo as the agency worker explained her "parents were giving her up; they couldn't feed her. I had no reason to question that."

Even as he tried to unravel her puzzling story, Mike quickly bonded with Elleia. "She was such a little doll, it wasn't hard to love her," he says. And despite her tear-filled nights, Elleia became part of the family—snuggling with Mike as he read her Dr. Seuss and Curious George, going on family hikes in the mountains, getting T-ball lessons from her brothers Porter, now 6, and Blaine, 11. Still, when Mike would take Elleia grocery shopping, "she'd point at the mangos and pineapples," Mike recalls, "and say, 'Samoa, Daddy!'"

Within a year after adopting Elleia, the Nybergs contacted authorities; their report helped launch the investigation into Focus on Children. Then, in late 2005, the Nybergs took Elleia to Samoa to see her family. "We needed to find out," Mike says, "where her life should be." At a pre-arranged meeting place, her parents, Tupu and Isaia So, were waiting. "She was hugging her mom, and her mom was crying," Mike recalls. "Then she went to her brother. They hugged and hugged."

Afterward Elleia's parents explained how they'd been misled by an agency worker into surrendering their daughter. They showed the Nybergs their home, a compound of wood-and-palm huts for the extended family, where they eked out a living growing pineapples, mangos, coconuts and beans. There was no plumbing, and "there were pigs and dogs and chickens everywhere," Mike says. "The living conditions were not ideal by our standards. But she was receiving so much love." The families agreed: Elleia—whose birth name is Sei—should stay in Samoa. The day they left, Mike recalls, "she hugged me and wouldn't let go. She was bawling and I was bawling."

Five months later Mike was astonished to get a call from the Sos. They were struggling and wanted to know, would the Nybergs take Elleia back, not to adopt but as a foster daughter, so she could get a U.S. education? "They said we know you would care for her and we still want her to have the American dream," Mike says. He jumped at the chance, and Elleia returned to Utah.

But not for long. Already strained, the Nybergs' marriage had come apart under the pressures of the past year. "Her [Mormon] parents expected her to be raised by an intact [Mormon] family—and we weren't a whole family anymore," says Mike, who now lives in Idaho and shares custody of his sons with his ex-wife (who didn't return PEOPLE's calls). "I called them, and they said they'd like to have her back." In February 2007 Mike had to put Elleia on a plane back to Samoa, this time for good. "I love my little girl," he says. "I was heartbroken I wouldn't be there for her."

He's still a part of her life—speaking to her by telephone and last year visiting Samoa with his sons. "We love Mike and his kids," Elleia's mother, Tupu, tells PEOPLE through a translator. Just last year one of Elleia's older brothers named his baby son Mike; another named his newborn boy Nyberg. "Now," Mike says, "Tupu and Isaia and I, we share a daughter together. It's a strange dynamic for people to understand. But that's what it is."

Regulating adoption

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0520/1224246948694.html

Wed, May 20, 2009

IN RECENT days the anguish of prospective adoptive parents whose hoped-for adoptions have been stalled by the ending of a bilateral agreement between Ireland and Vietnam has been graphically described in these pages. The devotion of these parents to their hoped-for children and the difficulties they are experiencing are beyond doubt.

The existing adoption agreement with Vietnam, in existence for just under five years, lapsed at the beginning of this month leaving families in the middle of the process in a state of suspension. But this should not lead to a hasty or ill-considered renewal of the agreement which is currently under renegotiation.

The renegotiation was necessitated by concerns on the part of the Government about adoption procedures in Vietnam following the publication last year of a highly critical report by the US government. The latter suspended adoptions from Vietnam, a course followed some months later by Sweden.

The concerns relate to the ability of Vietnamese central state authorities to ensure that procedures followed by local authorities and orphanages meet best practice and guarantee the rights and interests of adoptive children and their families of origin. Best practice requires that the families of origin are fully informed and counselled in relation to their consent to adoption and that no money changes hands. The US report indicated that this is not always the case.

Although there are many differences between the situation involving American adoptions in Vietnam, where there are several competing agencies, and the Irish one, where there is only one which is authorised by the Adoption Board, the Minister for Children is correct to proceed with caution.

Inter-country adoptions raise many complex issues and reveal sharply the inequalities that exist between “sending” and “receiving” countries. Not only are income levels vastly different, it is inevitable that the administrative infrastructure in most of the “sending” countries will rarely match that in the “receiving” and that there will be room for bad practice to develop as a result. In such circumstances, responsibility lies on the “receiving” country to ensure that everything is done to protect the children involved.

The alternative is a scenario where in the years to come as adoptive children reach adulthood, they will have legitimate questions for the Irish authorities as to what steps were taken to guarantee their interests. The Government must ensure it has the answers.