Families Adopting in Vietnam Say They Are Caught in Diplomatic Jam
By ELIZABETH OLSON
Published: February 11, 2008
The New York Times
The State Department, which issued a warning on adoptions in Vietnam last month, maintains that the lack of controls on “baby finders and unregulated payments ”” the average adoption cost is about $25,000 per family ”” are fostering baby buying. Six years ago, similar accusations led Vietnam to tighten controls on foreign adoption. At the end of 2005, Vietnam and the United States signed an adoption agreement, and nearly 1,100 Vietnamese children have been adopted by Americans since. …
Twenty-one entry visas for children have been rejected in the last two years, according to the State Department. More than half the denials have come since last October, prompting complaints that the department is singling out individual cases to embarrass the Vietnamese government into changing its adoption process. …
The State Department does not comment on individual cases, but Ms. Bond said the current agreement with Vietnam needed to be reshaped to curb exploitation with, among other things, a more transparent fee structure, and to meet international standards set out in the Hague Convention, an adoptions pact. On April 1, the United States’ membership in the pact begins. Vietnam has not signed the Hague agreement.
“The goal of international adoption is to find a home for each orphaned child, Ms. Bond said, “not to ”˜produce’ a child for a family. It’s not a market.
2 Responses
Since there are only a few agencies involved with this as the NOIDS seem to show, it appears the problem is a result of these agencies. Why punish the majority of agencies that are playing by the rules! These agencies that are involved in the wrongdoings should be the ones punished, by taking away their license and any further licensing of agencies should be done with great care, if at all. Aren’t there enough agencies working in Vietnam, more do not need to be added.
Is there something we should know about these agencies? Is there a list of agencies that seem not to be following the rules?