Vietnam DOS Statement, JCICS Lobbying and Our Response

We warned prospective parents about reopening countries like Vietnam one week ago. We have been stopping the spin on the Bac Lieu 16 cases since June of 2011.

Now, DOS has issued a slightly-more-firm-than-usual warning, found here and pasted below:

“Notice: U.S. Department of State to delay resuming adoptions in Vietnam

The United States has determined that it will not resume intercountry adoptions in Vietnam on February 1, 2012, when the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption will enter into force there.

Despite Vietnam’s initiatives to strengthen its child welfare system and ensure the integrity of its domestic and international adoption process, it does not yet have a fully Hague compliant process in place. We continue to caution adoption service providers and prospective adoptive parents that, to ensure that adoptions from Vietnam will be compliant with the Convention, important steps must still take place before intercountry adoptions between the United States and Vietnam resume. Adoption Service Providers should not initiate or claim to initiate, adoption programs in Vietnam until they receive notification from the Department of State that it has resumed adoptions in Vietnam.

The Department of State will provide updated information on www.adoption.state.gov as it becomes available. If you have any further questions about this notice, please contact the Office of Children’s Issues at 1-888-407-4747 within the United States or 202-501-4444 from outside the United States.”

But this is not the end of this story. JCICS, the adoption agency lobbying organization, is lobbying for a way out of this blockade. They thought they had this in the bag. Their agencies were chomping at the bit to get clients’ money. Adoptive parents have put their heads back in the sand on the issues and are eager to start their adoptions.

JCICS issued a ridiculous proposal about opening some provinces, pasted below:
http://www.jointcouncil.org/u-s-not-to-resume-adoption-with-vietnam/

“The U.S. Department of State has issued a Notice confirming that the U.S. will not resume intercountry adoption with Vietnam. The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption went into force in Vietnam on February 1, 2012 however the Department of State stated that Vietnam “ does not yet have a fully Hague compliant process in place”.

It is our understanding that a primary issue is that specific Vietnamese provinces are not supporting the principle of subsidiarity. While this is an issue with Hague compliance, we encourage both the U.S. and Vietnamese government to resolve outstanding issues and resume intercountry adoption in those provinces that are in compliance.

We encourage potential adoptive parents and adoption service providers to use caution as no timeline has been stated by either government regarding the resumption of intercountry adoption between the U.S. and Vietnam.”

Crabbina says it best:

Allow us to inform you that the JCICS stating that “specific Vietnamese provinces are not supporting the principle of subsidiarity” is JCICS-speak for saying that the greedy and corrupt provinces that trafficked children with impunity before both Vietnam shutdowns are having trouble figuring out how to share the pie that they are salivating over if adoptions to the USA resume.

Allow us to remind the JCICS that when Vietnam was open, corrupt traffickers knowingly hired by the scumbag agencies in the USA freely moved babies and children around from province to province to hide their origins and escape scrutiny. Who is going to provide oversight for these filthy pigs this time around?

Yes, Tom, we’re asking you what exactly is going to be different this time.

Again, we remind our readers to thoroughly review the Vietnam documents at Brandeis University’s Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism here.