LilMtnCbn
11-19-2003, 06:40 AM
"Refill". Sounds like a Big Gulp from 7-11.
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters11-18-173631.asp?reg=PACRIM
New Vietnam adoption law set to refill empty arms
By Christina Toh-Pantin
TAY DANG, Vietnam, Nov. 18 — In 10 years, not one child has left the gates of
Vietnam's Society Sponsorship Centre No. 4 in the arms of foreign adoptive
parents.
Back in 1993, alarmed by a spate of fraudulent adoptions and baby
selling elsewhere in the country, this childcare centre some 60 km (37 miles)
from Hanoi halted all overseas adoptions.
Now, it is gearing up to resume the practice after the government passed
laws this year requiring adopting countries to sign bilateral pacts and Hanoi
set up a ''one-stop'' international adoption department to cut red tape and
monitor adoptions.
Two boys and three girls, aged between three and five, play with a group
of older children in a classroom with faded green paint, adorned with alphabet
charts and Vietnamese proverbs such as ''Children say good things'' and
''Children do good things.''
The five are the only ones in the room with a realistic chance of being
adopted. Six years is the practical cut-off point for adoption, centre staff
said, leaving most of the other children at the centre -- where the average age
is 8- -- unlikely candidates.
''The French government have requested and we've sent some photos and
application forms but we don't have children that meet the requirement of
parents because they (the children) are too old,'' said the centre's director,
Nguyen Quang Thang.
France was the first country to sign an adoption agreement with its
former colony, in 2000, before the new rule was enacted. Ireland signed the
pact in September after Denmark and Italy earlier this year. At least 10 more
are expected to follow.
In 2002, an estimated 1,500 children in the communist country were
adopted by foreigners, mainly from France.
Vu Duc Long, who heads the International Child Adoption Department at
the Justice Ministry, estimates that 12,000 children have been taken into
foreign homes since the early 1990s when records began.
OPEN FOR MANIPULATION
But the old system was open to manipulation, as unscrupulous adoption
agencies sprang up unchecked, charging thousands of dollars for babies and
sometimes offering the same infant to several different unsuspecting families.
Several dozen people were jailed for fraudulent adoption practices.
Dealing with layers of officialdom also encouraged payoffs to expedite
bureaucracy. ''Probably a lot of the (adoption) agents were in bed with the
local authorities,'' said one foreigner who lives in Vietnam and has adopted
several babies.
Long agrees: ''There were people who traded in babies and profited from
it, also some government officials were implicated.'' Now, his department
monitors all applications before passing them to local officials.
The new adoption department opened in August and is already in full
swing. Long, a lawyer by training and the father of two daughters, shows a
Reuters visitor fat envelopes containing pictures of four baby boys up for
adoption.
''I received these just this morning,'' he said.
The changes are expected to cut delays in the adoption process to about
four months from up to nine in the past.
In neighbouring China, the process can be much more time-consuming. One
Australian couple from New South Wales told Reuters it had taken them nearly
four years of frustration before they succeeded in adopting a 10-month-old girl
from Hunan.
While former war foe America is a key destination for Vietnamese
adoptees, even countries with apparently scant connections have become keen
participants. Ireland saw nearly 100 Vietnamese adoptions last year, up from
about 20 in 2001.
''As our country has become more prosperous in recent years, the Irish
people have started to look to adopt children outside of Ireland,'' Daniel
Mulhall, Irish ambassador to Vietnam, said at the adoption pact signing in
Hanoi.
''There are relatively few Irish children available for adoption,'' he
said.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters11-18-173631.asp?reg=PACRIM
New Vietnam adoption law set to refill empty arms
By Christina Toh-Pantin
TAY DANG, Vietnam, Nov. 18 — In 10 years, not one child has left the gates of
Vietnam's Society Sponsorship Centre No. 4 in the arms of foreign adoptive
parents.
Back in 1993, alarmed by a spate of fraudulent adoptions and baby
selling elsewhere in the country, this childcare centre some 60 km (37 miles)
from Hanoi halted all overseas adoptions.
Now, it is gearing up to resume the practice after the government passed
laws this year requiring adopting countries to sign bilateral pacts and Hanoi
set up a ''one-stop'' international adoption department to cut red tape and
monitor adoptions.
Two boys and three girls, aged between three and five, play with a group
of older children in a classroom with faded green paint, adorned with alphabet
charts and Vietnamese proverbs such as ''Children say good things'' and
''Children do good things.''
The five are the only ones in the room with a realistic chance of being
adopted. Six years is the practical cut-off point for adoption, centre staff
said, leaving most of the other children at the centre -- where the average age
is 8- -- unlikely candidates.
''The French government have requested and we've sent some photos and
application forms but we don't have children that meet the requirement of
parents because they (the children) are too old,'' said the centre's director,
Nguyen Quang Thang.
France was the first country to sign an adoption agreement with its
former colony, in 2000, before the new rule was enacted. Ireland signed the
pact in September after Denmark and Italy earlier this year. At least 10 more
are expected to follow.
In 2002, an estimated 1,500 children in the communist country were
adopted by foreigners, mainly from France.
Vu Duc Long, who heads the International Child Adoption Department at
the Justice Ministry, estimates that 12,000 children have been taken into
foreign homes since the early 1990s when records began.
OPEN FOR MANIPULATION
But the old system was open to manipulation, as unscrupulous adoption
agencies sprang up unchecked, charging thousands of dollars for babies and
sometimes offering the same infant to several different unsuspecting families.
Several dozen people were jailed for fraudulent adoption practices.
Dealing with layers of officialdom also encouraged payoffs to expedite
bureaucracy. ''Probably a lot of the (adoption) agents were in bed with the
local authorities,'' said one foreigner who lives in Vietnam and has adopted
several babies.
Long agrees: ''There were people who traded in babies and profited from
it, also some government officials were implicated.'' Now, his department
monitors all applications before passing them to local officials.
The new adoption department opened in August and is already in full
swing. Long, a lawyer by training and the father of two daughters, shows a
Reuters visitor fat envelopes containing pictures of four baby boys up for
adoption.
''I received these just this morning,'' he said.
The changes are expected to cut delays in the adoption process to about
four months from up to nine in the past.
In neighbouring China, the process can be much more time-consuming. One
Australian couple from New South Wales told Reuters it had taken them nearly
four years of frustration before they succeeded in adopting a 10-month-old girl
from Hunan.
While former war foe America is a key destination for Vietnamese
adoptees, even countries with apparently scant connections have become keen
participants. Ireland saw nearly 100 Vietnamese adoptions last year, up from
about 20 in 2001.
''As our country has become more prosperous in recent years, the Irish
people have started to look to adopt children outside of Ireland,'' Daniel
Mulhall, Irish ambassador to Vietnam, said at the adoption pact signing in
Hanoi.
''There are relatively few Irish children available for adoption,'' he
said.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
