Voices for Vietnam Adoption Integrity

• Monday June 30th, CNN presented this report titled US Vietnam Adoptions End, featuring some very strong statements from U.S. Ambassador Michael Michalak.




• On July 1st PBS’s News Hour did a segment on International Adoption issues, highlighting Vietnam. The report featured a discussion with Susan Soon-Keum Cox, Vice President of Public Policy and External Affairs at Holt International and Congressional Coalition on Adoption Executive Director Kathleen Strottman. Click here to listen to the report on Windows Media. And here for Real Audio.Updated: The full transcript as well as a link to video is now online.

.

Although all is mostly quiet in the world of Vietnam Adoptions, the July 1 deadline for dossier submission and the September 1 deadline for matches are quickly approaching. Many have asked how, in a program that is oversaturated with waiting parents, is it beneficial to keep dossier submissions open through July 1? Some agencies are still desperately looking for families for special needs and older children, the often overlooked and most needy of orphan groups! This time has allowed for some paper-ready parents to be matched with waiting and special needs children so it has been a good thing.

Parents waiting for a match are understandably anxious for news where little is to be had. Recently a rumor has surfaced that Vietnam was willing to grandfather in all logged dossiers and drop their Sept. 1 deadline. Unfortunately US dispelled this rumor with the following recent statement:

In mid June, the U.S. Embassy contacted the Vietnamese Office of the Government in response to rumors that the Government of Vietnam had changed its policy regarding adoption dossiers still pending (without a referral) when the Agreement expires on September 1, 2008. The Office of the Government stated unequivocally that no decision has been made to change this policy.

Yesterday President Bush and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung met for a bilateral meeting to discuss many topics, one of which was the adoption process in Vietnam:

The President expressed his commitment to continue the development of intercountry adoption cooperation between the United States and Vietnam that ensures the best interests of the child, respects his or her fundamental rights, and prevents the abduction and trafficking of children. The Prime Minister underscored that Vietnam shares these goals and stressed that Vietnam will speed up preparations for an early accession to the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions. The Prime Minister also welcomed U.S. technical assistance in facilitating this step.

Although this topic was only a sidebar to the discussions, it was nice to see that both leaders are taking ethics and continuity as well as accession to the Hague seriously and share that common goal for Vietnam.

In Mid-May, Linh Song with Ethica, President Tom DiFilipo with JCICS and Michele Bond who works for the Department of State as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Overseas Citizens Services participated in a radio talk show to discuss ethical concerns in adoption.

You can listen to this 13 minute interview with Windows Media Player here
or with Real Player here .

Last week, Bond also participated in Dawn Davenport’s radio talk show Creating A Family which you can listen to online here. You can also read Dawn’s thoughts on the state of International adoption based on that radio show here.

Many of us have read this newest “fact sheet”.  Many of us who read it said to ourselves, “and what about this is new news?” 

But there was one phrase that caught me off guard.  

We are aware of four children who have been returned to their birth parents once these circumstances were discovered.

As I have pondered these words today, I have been trying to put my finger on what it is about these words that bothers me so much.  And I believe it is this.

Many, many of us have been very concerned about Orphans First and how it is all going to play out.  We have been concerned about NOIDS and what happens to the children who receive them.  Well, according to this fact sheet, four children whose questionable circumstances were discovered were returned to their birthfamilies. 

As I have tried to look at this situation the the situational ethics lens that so many AP/PAP’s have regarding the larger situation in Vietnam, 4 out of 1403 doesn’t seem too bad.  If there were only 4 cases that resulted in reunification, that isn’t too bad.  4 sacrificed for the greater good of these poor Vietnamese children finding better homes.

But immediately the questions come. How many birth family who never intended to relinquish their children were never found?  How many cases slipped in under the radar with no one the wiser?  How would that feel to think I had lost my child forever?

The reality is that we can never know the answers to those questions, and in all reality, to some extent(especially depending on what agency you used), our children could be the children that families in Vietnam believe have been stolen. 

Of course we can’t go back.  And regret that cripples us in worry and fear has no purpose.  But regret that moves us to action can change this situation.  Some of us need to regret that we used certain agencies, some of us need to regret that we really don’t know how ethical our adoptions are, some of us simply need to regret that this situation ever took place and that our children will be a part of this legacy whether their own personal adoptions were 100% ethical or not. 

But here is the question that I pose today;

 What legacy are we going to leave with our children? 

What will they tell people when they are asked about Vietnam adoptions, about the circumstances surrounding their births?  And more, importantly, how will they feel about their adoption stories and the roles that we played in their lives?

I believe that what our children say and believe is, in many ways, up to us.  Do we slink away and hang our heads, do we distance ourselves from the chaos?  Do we breathe a sigh of relief that we, at least, have our children home, and simply go on with life.  Because really, life is hard enough as it is.

Or do we roll our sleeves up and do the work.  Do we put our money where our mouths are by donating to organizations that keep impoverished families intact, that support ethical adoptions and familes stuck in adoption crisis?  Do we send our letters and emails to our congressmen and representatives?  Do we keep reading the message boards and the embassy “fact sheets”?

Don’t let this chance to change our children’s legacy become another crippling regret. 

The State Department has posted a new “Fact Sheet” for Vietnam, dated June 2008.

While much of the information is a re-wording of previous announcements, there is some new information here, including the following:

Over the course of 28 months (January 2006 to April 2008), 1403 orphans adopted from Vietnam were issued visas to the United States. According to Vietnamese officials, several thousand adoption cases are currently pending.

Although it is only a first step to improve the process, overall, the new procedure appears to be working well. In the first four months of Orphan First processing, 287 I-600 petitions have been pre-approved. This is equal to the number of I-600 approvals for the same time period last year. During the first six months of FY 2008 (October 2007 to March 2008), 449 adoption visas cases were approved, compared to 353 for the same period in FY 2007.

Unfortunately, our field investigations continue to reveal some incidents of serious adoption irregularities, including forged or altered documentation, women paid or coerced to release their children, and children offered for adoption without the knowledge or consent of their birth parents. We are aware of four children who have been returned to their birth parents once these circumstances were discovered.

The U.S. Government believes that Vietnam’s accession to the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions and Vietnam’s commitment to meeting Hague obligations offers the clearest and best-tested path to transparent and ethical adoptions in Vietnam.

There was another quarterly ASP (Adoption Service Provider) meeting at the US Embassy in HaNoi this week. Ethica has posted their notes on the meeting on their website. The Embassy provided updates and information on the current I600 wait and ‘blocked’ provinces, the new fingerprinting process, the current situation with the expiration of the MOA and what that means for families/agencies, and the status of VN-US Discussions for a new MOA.

If your agency posts their own notes from the meeting (on a public website or blog) please pass along the link here in our comments.

USCIS has updated their website with this PDF dated May 29, 2008 that reflects the long-awaited DNA testing.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that its office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam is implementing a DNA testing requirement for Vietnamese adoption cases where the birth parent(s) of the adopted child has been identified. USCIS is also reminding prospective adoptive parents that the agreement required by Vietnamese law to authorize adoptions between the United States and Vietnam will expire later this summer.

USCIS expects that DNA testing will not only help confirm a child’s status as an orphan, but will also significantly streamline the processing of cases in which a birth parent has been identified, as opposed to the more lengthy investigative time required to process adoptions when the birth parent is unknown.

A prospective adoptive parent(s) filing a petition to Classify an Orphan as an Immediate Relative (Form I-600) may be required to submit a DNA test in order to establish a relationship between the prospective adoptive child and his or her birth parent(s). The USCIS office in Ho Chi Minh City will advise the petitioner filing a Form I-600 of the procedures for the collection of the DNA sample. The petitioner must pay the costs associated with the DNA testing.

USCIS is taking this step in response to concerns regarding the adoption process in Vietnam, and to ensure that all children identified for potential adoption meet the Immigration and Nationality Act’s definition of “orphan” prior to a United States citizen adopting or obtaining legal custody of the child. In several cases, children have been returned to birth parents who did not intend for their child to be adopted internationally.

Further information about dossier-filing deadlines, referral deadlines and the cautions that we have previous read about from the Embassy are also mentioned in the release.

JCICS is calling for a campaign by agencies, adoptive parents, prospective adoptive parents, advocates and all of those who have an interest in international adoption in Vietnam to join the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Co-Chairs and sign their letter to Secretary Condoleezza Rice in support of their recommendations for the continuation of adoptions in Vietnam. The focus on the campaign, one that we fully support and advocate for, is an end to corruption and not an end to a child’s right to a family.

You can read the JCICS recommendations in PDF format here and if you agree with these recommendations, send an email of support to this email address: advocate@jcics.org no later than May 30. This email will be included in a petition to Congress

Secondarily, on June 2-4, JCICS is requesting that everyone contact your Congressional Representatives and Senators and ask them to support A Child’s Right campaign. They are instructing as follows:
Call both of your U.S. Senators and your representative in the U.S. House of Representatives.

• You can find your Senators’ phone numbers and email address at www.senate.gov
• You can find your Representatives’ phone numbers and email address at www.house.gov

Include the following in your calls and emails.

• If they have not heard about the Campaign, ask them to contact the Congressional Coalition for Adoption Institute at 202-544-8500 or Joint Council on International Children’s Services at 703-535-8045.

• Send an email to everyone you called. The e-mail is important, but the phone call should be placed first.

Many people don’t realize that Ethica is primarily a volunteer effort. Most of the people working for Ethica do not get paid and in fact pay for much of Ethica’s expenses out of their own pockets. Ethica is in a unique position of standing in the middle - representing birth families, children and adoptive families. Due to that position, they are very careful about where their funding comes from. It is for that reason that VVAI is more than willing to promote Ethica’s fundraising campaign. Will you consider making a donation today?

On this Mother’s Day, the adoption community will celebrate and honor first and adoptive mothers for the love and care they’ve provided to their children. These mothers might be blocks or oceans apart, but connected through a desire to ensure their children’s well-being and futures. We at Ethica, ask that you help contribute to their legacies by supporting ethical adoptions, practices, and policies.

Our work reminds us that motherhood through adoption has its challenges and sometimes, heartbreak. Unfortunately, adoptions can be tainted by questionable practices and the victimization of vulnerable members of the adoption triad. When problems arise, families and their advocates approach Ethica for guidance and assistance. Their stories speak for themselves:

- An American mother calls, seeking help to recover her child, whose “adoption” she never consented to.

- An anthropologist calls seeking help for Vietnamese women who are searching for their children. They had been given as little as $31 USD as “poverty alleviation support” by Vietnamese officials who promised that their children will be returned to them in several years, and that until then the orphanage will provide for them. The children have been internationally adopted without their consent.

- A family is stranded in Guatemala, abandoned by their adoption agency in the midst of new policy changes that essentially close adoptions while the country centralizes its process.

- A young woman adopted from Eastern Europe, and then left in the U.S. foster care system, wonders if she is a citizen since she has no immigration paperwork and needs to apply for federal assistance.

- Adopted children in an African orphanage tell their prospective adoptive parents about being sexually abused. As a result they are denied food, and the orphanage threatens to stop their adoptions.

- An adoption agency uses a bait-and-switch tactic, offering children to prospective adoptive parents despite not having the appropriate paperwork or histories, then switching the “referral” in-country.

- A Christian missionary group questions if their donations are being used to care for orphans as the poor conditions persist.

- Families report giving “donations” of $5-7,000 to Vietnamese orphanage directors in order to complete their adoptions. And yet two months ago, Ethica was asked to provide blankets and formula for babies dying from unusually cold weather in Vietnamese orphanages participating in international adoptions.

Ethica receives 50-80 inquiries a week from adoption triad members in crisis. Over the past 6 years, we have assisted over 8,000 children and families, often advocating for them with the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and state attorney generals. currently we are actively assisting over 200 children and families in the U.S., Guatemala, Vietnam, Liberia, Haiti, and Nepal.

In the United States, in addition to answering many questions and supporting individuals through difficult situations, we have conducted a review of state adoption laws. We have testified in person and in writing on adopted people’s rights to their birth records. We have worked on cases involving the informed consent of first parents.

Our work involves human rights issues such as the trafficking of children into adoption. We have carried out several successful humanitarian aid projects to Liberia and Vietnam.

It is essential that Ethica continue to assist families in crisis and expand our advocacy initiatives. Ethica is the only truly independent adoption advocacy organization doing this vital work. Ethica represents all members of the adoption triad, and has no competing financial interest. To maintain our independence, we do not accept monetary support from anyone who places children for adoption.

Ethica’s goal is to raise $20,000 in 15 days so that they can meet the increasing demand for their services. Consider:

A $100 donation allows Ethica to administer humanitarian efforts for 1 month.
A $250 donation allows Ethica to train a state adoption regulator on adoption fraud and the need for adoption consumer protection laws.
A $500 donation can keep the Ethica phone lines open for 1 year.
A $1,000 donation can cover Ethica’s office rent for 4 months.

If we all give a little, it will amount to a lot. Please, take a moment now and make a donation, for Ethica, and for all those who will benefit from their important work.

Ethica has posted this important call to action with step-by-step instructions on who to contact and how to contact them as well as a cut-and-paste letter for each and every individual who is hoping to adopt, who has adopted or who is touched by adoptions in Vietnam in some way.  They have outlined the most important points that our representatives need to hear so that we can move forward with both the effort toward transparency AND adoptions, both.

In addition to Ethica’s instructions, you can go to the website Congrass.org and follow these instructions to email your reps:

1. Put your email in the box labeled “My Elected Offiicials” and hit “go”.
2. Click on the name of one of your elected officials.
3. Above the picture of each rep, click the “contact” tab.
4. Click on the link for “web form” and submit information provided by Ethica.
5. Repeat for each listed official, both state and federal. 

Taking these easy steps to call, fax or email your representatives to share your concerns can make a powerful difference. Don’t assume others from your area will do this work, each one of us needs to take a few minutes to do this ourselves. Thank you all!

From the Vietnamese Press, clarification on the deadline dates and also a glimmer of hope for the future of adoptions from Vietnam…

Head of the Ministry’s Department for International Child Adoption Vu Duc Long added that Vietnam will stop taking new adoption applications from the US from July 1.

According to the official, the decision not to renew the agreement is based on Article 25 of the agreement and the proposal of the US Embassy in Vietnam on Feb. 1 in its diplomatic note numbered 0135/08.

“The Vietnamese side will only process applications that it receives before July 1 and meet all requirements. The applications for which no suitable baby is found before the expiration of the agreement on September 1, 2008 will be returned to the US”, Long stressed.

However, he noted, after the termination of the agreement, Vietnam and the US can still cooperate in the issue through a new agreement or the mechanism of the Hague Adoption Convention in which Vietnam may take part in the future.

I am happy to see Dr. Long looking into the future and considering a new agreement, or (even better, in my opinion) joining the Hague Adoption Convention. Clearly though there are issues that need to be resolved before that can happen, and I see this as all the more reason to take Linh’s advice and advocate for greater integrity in the international adoption process. It would be wonderful if this lapse in the Memorandum actually resulted in a better, more ethical system that truly serves the needs of the children. The way I see it, our job here at VVAI (and the job of every adoptive parent of a child from Vietnam) has only just begun.