Vietnam plan to end baby trafficking
HANOI - Vietnam is planning to amend its adoption laws
in an effort to stop the trafficking of babies
through overseas adoption agencies.
Babies can be sold for up to $50,000 each.
Vietnamese officials say 2,000 babies have
been adopted by overseas families in the last
decade.
Many of them have been taken to the United
States and France.
The government is well aware of the problems
of baby selling and fake documents. Late last
year, the state media reported that police had
broken a major baby-selling ring, with the
prosecution of 16 people in the southern city
of Ho Chi Minh.
But the illegal practices continue, at so-called
baby hotels where deals are done, through
orphanages and through the traffickers
themselves - the intermediaries who find the
babies and sell them.
American demand
Vietnam's deputy justice minister, Ha Hung
Cuong, says the proposed new law will only
allow adoptions to countries which have a
bi-lateral agreement with Vietnam.
But these could take
years to negotiate and
it is not clear whether
Vietnamese adoptions
will stop.
Some countries, such
as Canada, have frozen
adoptions because of
trafficking. At present,
only France has an
adoption agreement
with Vietnam. It caps
the amount which can
be paid for adoption expenses in an effort to
stop baby-trafficking.
But diplomats here say the result has been
that there are very few babies available to
French families. Most go to American families
and those willing to pay a high price.
The US Government granted visas to 600
babies last year, although some visa
applications were rejected because of
evidence of fraud.
The new Vietnamese law will also regulate
adoption agencies. At present, people seeking
Vietnamese babies can negotiate through
unlicensed agents, who in some cases keep
catalogues of available babies and run the
price negotiations.
What the law cannot do is force moral
behaviour, either from those who procure the
babies or the adopting parents who are willing
to pay for them.
By Clare Arthurs - BBC News - January 09, 2002.
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