INTERNATIONAL
Romania suspected of adoption ban
breaches
Bucharest lands in hot water with European Union after evidence of
international adoption ban violations emerges.
When she was picked up from a state-run cradle five years ago, Andreea was a fastidious child, who regarded strangers with a suspicious
frown. Today, as part of a foster family in Otopeni, near the capital
Bucharest, she seems the picture of happiness. The little girl smiles
constantly, is extremely sociable and spends most of her time at play. “We love her very much and try to give her a sense of home and
normalcy,” said Andreea’s foster mother Carmina Rogati. “She has her own mother and they meet from time to time, but Andreea’s real family is here. The fact that I am not her legal parent
simply doesn’t matter.”
Foster homes such as these are becoming increasingly common in
Romania following many efforts in recent years to improve the lives of
numerous abandoned children. Millions of US dollars worth of foreign aid has been spent closing
large-scale institutions and placing thousand of youngsters in foster
care — a system previously unknown to Romanians.
Over the past few years, almost 45,000 children have been placed in
foster families or with close relatives, the government says. But the battle against child poverty and neglect is far from over.
Romania still has some 37,000 children in state-run homes — almost half
the number four years ago — most of whom have been deserted by their
parents.
“Romanians are usually devoted parents but there are still some who
prefer to abandon their children, saying they are unable to provide for
their families,” said Cristina Liberis, a journalist who specialises in
child welfare issues.
Fostering by Romanian parents is seen by the local authorities as
main solution to the abandoned children problem. Two years ago, there
was a campaign to encourage the process, as under communism neither the
state nor the church were prepared to pay people to look after other
people’s children.
“Following the campaign and the introduction of some financial
incentives, fostering increased by almost 50 per cent,” said Gabriela
Coman, head of the National Agency for Child Protection, NACP, adding
that 3,756 deserted children were found new homes between 2001 and 2003. But sources within the NACP, speaking on condition of anonymity, told
IWPR that there are far more applications for fostering than there are
abandoned children every year — but the government simply ignores them.
Analysts say this is because Romania is currently trapped between the
wishes of the European Union — which wants to maintain the current ban
on international adoption — and pressure from some other foreign
governments which are keen to lift the embargo.
A moratorium on inter-country adoptions was introduced in late 2001
under pressure from the EU, which accused the authorities dealing with
abandoned children of corruption. Brussels also wanted to promote local
solutions to the problem, warning that international adoption would
create a demand-driven industry which might ensure that Romania always
had institutionalised children.
The EU therefore asked Bucharest to suspend the practice until
corruption had been completely eradicated. It agreed to do so, leaving
around 3,500 foreign families stranded in the middle of adoption
proceedings. The government has since come under pressure to lift the ban
—
chiefly from the United States, with some US senators going so far as to
offer the carrot of NATO membership if Romania obliged. Other countries,
such as Italy, Israel and France, have also lobbied hard for adoptions
to resume.
NACP sources claim that the authorities have bowed to this pressure
—
and allege they are ignoring many domestic adoption applications, in
order to deal with overseas requests deemed “exception” and “pipeline”
cases. As a result, government allowed foreign parents to adopt 1,115
children in the last two years, and a further 1,300 international
applications were received in the last few months, according to the
sources.
Romania is now in hot water over child adoption, at a time when
country’s officials look to complete talks this year on joining the EU. After admitting last month that 105 children had recently been sent
to Italy for adoption, Bucharest now has a lot of explaining to do to
the EU at a time when senior officials are discussing Romania’s entry
into the union.
Prime Minister Adrian Nastase said the cases in question were allowed
by a special government decision that left no room for corruption. But Baroness Nicholson
— the European parliament’s special
representative for Romania — and many of her colleagues have condemned
Bucharest for what they believe is a clear violation of the EU-imposed
ban, and have asked for the membership negotiation process to be
suspended.
The European parliament will make its recommendation at the end of
the February, but entry negotiations can only be suspended on the
European Commission’s say-so.
By Marian Chiriac in Bucharest
9 February 2004
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200402_479_6_eng.txt
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