Uganda Ministry Meeting on Illegal Child Adoptions UPDATED

“The gender ministry and directors of children’s homes across Uganda have met and discussed ways to ensure that orphans and vulnerable children are not illegally placed into alternative care.

There arose suggestions that children should remain with their families instead of growing up in institutions because they end up losing their identity.

The argument from James Ssembatya from the gender and labour ministry was that the resources children’s homes use are enough to sustain a family and bring it out of poverty rather than using that money to run a children’s home.

Ssembatya, who is an assistant commissioner at the ministry, said: “If these families are supported economically, they can look after their children.”

The ministry, he said, promotes foster care since it can be an alternative to family preservation and later children can go back to their families.

The meeting, which took place at Namirembe Resource Center, got the directors of homes and gender ministry officials engaged in discussing potential solutions to the problem.

Operation of children’s homes is catered for in the Children’s Act, chapter 59 under the children and babies homes rules.

But some institutions, oblivious to this law, go ahead to operate homes illegally.

The gender and labour ministry encourages promotion of local adoption of children since it is cheaper and more secure than inter-country adoption.

Ssembatya’s fear is that in case children are adopted and taken out of the country, they are likely to get disconnected from their cultural identity.

He prefers such children stay with their families and in country where “we can monitor their families and give them protection”.

There have been cases where people have been given guardianship of helpless children by the High Court, and after a short stay with them, they fly them abroad and adopt them.

Sometimes, such rash decisions weigh down on the adopted child. When he or she does not bond well with his or her new family abroad, he or she is sent to a children’s home there.

The ministry official recounted a case where children were taken abroad but did not bond well with the adoptive parents and they were driven out.

‘A beautiful thing’

Freda Luzinda, formerly working at the U.S. Embassy in Kampala processing adoption visas, outlines the importance of keeping a family intact.

“Family preservation is important through reunification and reintegration,” she says.

After working for two years at the embassy, Luzinda is presently the country’s national director of Child Advocacy Africa, an NGO promoting child rights and welfare.

Many Ugandans conceive adoption is largely a foreign practice. While there is plenty of truth to that perception, it is also true that the practice is becoming more popular by the day.

But the reality that surrounds adoption of children is what is making some helpless parents to cling onto their children, with cases of abuse of the practice going off people’s lips.

Luzinda admits that despite this criticism, that “inter-country adoption has much been a criticized concept because it’s been battered, abused due to bad practice and money involved”, when done correctly – or legally, if you want – it is a beautiful thing.

The explosive growth of the adoption industry in Uganda has fueled fears that children are being exploited for profit and that the best interests of the child is not prioritized.

“Orphan creation does happen a lot in Uganda, and this is done by adoption facilitators who will go and scout the slums, find vulnerable families and talk them into giving up their children,” said Luzinda.

The police force came up with the Child Protection Unit in 1995 to primarily raise awareness through community policing by visiting schools, markets, churches and teach people about the dangers of child abuse, children’s rights and responsibilities.

The unit created a toll free line 0800199033 to handle children matters.

It also has motor vehicle patrols that cover designated areas within the city and upcountry highways.”

A meet on illegal child adoptions

[New Vision 3/12/13 by Esther Namirimu]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “CHILD rights activists want the Government to halt issuance of legal guardianship orders to anyone seeking adoption, arguing that it has been manipulated by child traffickers.

In a statement released on Friday, the activists also called for the amendment of the Children’s Act to include rules and guidelines on legal guardianship.

“Currently, the issuance of legal guardianship is at the discretion of a sitting judge. The lack of clear guidelines makes the system highly susceptible to child traffickers,” read the statement from African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN).

Sunday Vision recently broke a story showing that under the guise of legal guardianship, a number of children were being trafficked and sold off as sex slaves.

The report revealed that some of the parents are duped into giving away their children without fully understanding the consequences, yet for others, the financial benefits accrued from international adoption are too good to ignore.

According to the Police Crime Report 2011, a total of 69 cases of child trafficking were reported to the Police.

ANPPCAN stated that it had received and handled five cases of trafficking in 2012.

“In one of the cases, a 17-year-old girl who had been trafficked to Sweden was deported back to Uganda. Similarly, a 17-year-old boy was also deported by the Swedish Immigration Board in 2012. Upon arrival back in Uganda, both the boy and girl were resettled with their families. It is still not yet clear how they got to Sweden,” the statement said.

In Kitgum, 76 children aged between four to 16 years were recently rescued from a local organisation called Active Blessing Uganda. These children were being used as collateral to get assistance from donors.

The rescued children were being used to herd cattle and do other forms of domestic work in exchange for food. They were confined and were not allowed to move freely in the villages for fear that they would escape. It is reported that some of the children died due to malnutrition and lack of medical care.

The activists want the Government to institute a national committee to regulate the approval of all the inter-country adoption cases.

“The Government should ratify the Hague Convention on inter-country adoption to ensure that Ugandan children, once they leave the country, are monitored and their well-being is safeguarded. For inter-country adoption to happen, it should be necessary, legal and as a last resort,” they stated.

Anslem Wandega, the executive director ANPPCAN Uganda Chapter said: “Trafficking is slavery with a modern face, and no country can claim to be civilised with a section of its population still in slavery.”

Activists call for tighter laws on adoption

[New Vision 5/5/13 by Carol Natukunda]