Ethiopia Slows Adoption Processing to 5 Per Day UPDATED
Due to continued concern over corruption and fraud in Ethiopia, the Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs (MOWA) has “issued a directive saying it will process a maximum of five inter-country adoptions a day, effective March 10. Currently, the ministry is processing up to 50 cases a day, about half of them to the United States.”
“Abigail Rupp, head of the consular section at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa says the cutback is likely to result in a drop in adoptions to the United States from last year’s 2,500 to fewer than 500. She says the biggest concern is for the estimated 1,000 children currently in the adoptions pipeline, who may be forced to wait more than a year for their cases to be considered.”
“Rupp said adoption agencies in Ethiopia should take the directive as a cue to be accountable for each case they bring forward, including knowing exactly how children in orphanages came to be there. She said government officials have indicated they may close as many as 45 orphanages as part of the effort to clean up what critics have labeled a “baby business”.
[Voice of America 3/4/11 by Peter Heinlen]No doubt that the DOS will be hearing an earful from PAPs. They are still reeling from the Nepal campaign. Adoption agency personnel must be doing this
right about now. We will post the adoption alert update that the article promises when it posts.
We wonder if a substantial number of those proposed orphanage closures are ones run by American agencies and perhaps that is the substance that is driving this “500 kids” estimate.
With 1000 kids in the adoption pipeline, we can expect an over-the-top adoption industry campaign to bring these kids home.
Update: US Department of State finally issues a June 2, 2011 Notice that backs up this March article. Text pasted below:
“Notice: Update on adoption case processing by MOWCYA in Ethiopia
The U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia has received information from the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs indicating that processing of cases that received a court summons prior to March 8, 2011 is still ongoing. This exceeds their estimated 15-20 days to expeditiously process this caseload, as indicated in our April 5 notice. The Embassy also understands that processing of cases with court summons after March 8 is proceeding at 5 cases per day, and there is no indication that these numbers will increase in the short term.
Prospective Adoptive Parents and parents awaiting final approval of their match from the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs are cautioned to anticipate continued and considerable delays and are encouraged to remain in contact with their agency for updates to their case.
The Embassy’s Adoptions Unit can be reached at consadoptionaddis@state.gov.”
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