Slovakia Stops Adoptions to Italy Due to Missing PostPlacement Reports and Corruption UPDATED

“ADOPTIONS of Slovak children to Italy were put on hold on February 19, due to what Slovakia identified as missing post-adoption reports on the fate of 72 Slovak children adopted by Italian families. The moratorium will remain in effect until all of Slovakia’s terms are met by the Italian side. Meanwhile, Italy, the country with the highest demand for international adoptions from Slovakia, has promised to supply by April 15 the missing reports on 72 of the 269 children adopted over the past 10 years, Labour Ministry spokesperson Michal Stuška told The Slovak Spectator.

Slovak Labour Minister Ján Richter halted the adoptions on the heels of a visit to Italy on February 13 by Andrea Císarová, the head of the Centre for International Legal Protection of Children and Youth (CIPC), a branch of the Labour Ministry, to discuss the missing adoption reports. Císarová met with representatives of the Italian Commission for International Adoptions (CAI) and inquired about 117 post-adoption reports. However, she was only able to access a few of them, according to the Sme daily.

 

Slovak MPs began looking into documentation on the adoption of Slovak children in September 2012, after disputed cases of inter-country adoptions emerged, Sme reported. The impetus came primarily from the highly charged case of the Boór brothers, who were originally taken away from their parents, who at that time lived in Great Britain, by British social services.

 

Along with the missing reports from Italy, mainly covering adoptions that occurred in 2003 to 2005, the MPs’ investigation also revealed the case of two allegedly under-age and pregnant Slovak sisters living with an Italian foster family, whose case was first publicised in October 2012. The sisters claimed in online and phone conversations with their previous foster parent, Tatiana Lipková, that the younger one, 13, had delivered a baby, and the older of the two, 16, was pregnant with twins, TV JOJ reported in October 2012. However, the Labour Ministry said that these claims had proved untrue. “In this case [of the Slovak sisters in Italy], only confused and unverified information brought by the media was in question, but finally they admitted that they were wrong,” Stuška said, adding that this particular case was discussed only briefly during Císarová’s talks with the Italian commission. “The girls were legally adopted and the centre disposes with information on their condition.”

 

Missing documents

 

Richter discussed the missing documentation on March 6 with Italian Ambassador to Slovakia Roberto Martini, who had requested a meeting, according to Stuška. However, Martini did not explain why the documents are missing, despite the fact that they are required by international adoption protocol, Sme reported.

 

Richter and Martini agreed that the countries would revise the Protocol on Cooperation in Cross-Country Adoptions after Italy sends the missing reports.

 

“It is the responsibility of the Italian side to produce the missing documents, we are forthcoming and ready; it is Italy’s turn now,” Richter said, as quoted by the SITA newswire.

 

Rather than rely on Italy’s promises that it will send the reports, Slovakia should instead create a team to go to Italy and inspect the conditions of the adopted children in person, said Natália Blahová, the social advisor to the Foster Families Association who reported the case of the sisters on her blog, as quoted by Sme.

 

Richter will consider this option in the event that Italy fails to provide the reports by April 15. The Italian ambassador, however, said that there is long-term cooperation between Slovakia and Italy on inter-country adoptions which, in his words, are bringing good results: since 2003, 269 children have been adopted, SITA reported.

 

“The priority of the Italian side is first of all to defend the interests of under-age children in this sphere and we have always made an effort to make sure that everything was in line with Italian and European legislation,” Martini said, according to SITA.

 

Alena Mátejová, the former head of the CIPC, who was replaced in summer 2012, considers the “scandal of the missing reports about 72 children to be as artificial as the case of the pregnant girls”, according to Sme. She claims that the centre regularly demanded the reports, which were often delayed, and thus denies any claims of failure on the part of the CIPC.

 

“During my management the centre had information about all children adopted in Italy,” Mátejová said via her lawyers, as quoted by Sme.

 

Inquiry

 

The MPs’ investigation showed that more than 357 Slovak children were adopted by foreign families with the CIPC’s approval over the past 10 years, and in the cases of 106 of them, a CIPC commission, which is supposed to find suitable families for children, did not take part in the decisions over the adoptions, and the CIPC director made the decisions on his or her own, Sme reported.

 

Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) MP Lucia Nicholsonová, who initiated the investigation of the CIPC, claimed that the 106 adoptions were not overseen by the CIPC commission on the basis of what the officials called the “specific needs” of the child, when the commission is not obliged to be involved in the decision. The CIPC used this rule even in cases when the child suffered from inflammation of the middle ear or Strabismus, Sme reported.

 

An international adoption should be considered only in cases where it is difficult to find a foster family for a child in Slovakia. However, Nicholsonová claimed that the CIPC passed the adoptions of children who had a good chance of being placed with suitable families in Slovakia. Moreover, the CIPC agreed to the adoption of twins who were separated and sent to families in Sweden and the Netherlands. The inquiry has indicated that in most cases, children were adopted by Italian families, yet it was not clear where exactly they were located.

 

The MPs’ inquiry prompted Richter to conduct an audit of the CIPC and subsequently change the rules for CIPC proceedings in cases of cross-country adoptions in December 2012, according to Sme. The main change is that the CIPC director no longer has the authority to decide on children’s assignment to a family on his or her own; the director had this right in cases when the child had specific needs, like medical attention.

 

In addition to the director, the preparation team consisting of a psychologist, a lawyer, a CIPC employee, a representative of the labour office and a psychologist from the orphanage where the child lives, will participate in decisions on the suitability of new parents for the children in cases of international adoption, according to Sme.

 

Pregnancy story

 

An Italian family adopted two girls, Julka and Jolka, in July 2008, and two years later the younger sister contacted their previous foster mother, Lipková, claiming that she was pregnant. Lipková sent the information about the pregnancy to Slovakia’s adoption authorities. An official report from Italy sent in November 2012 disputed the claims, despite medical reports that, according to Sme, one of the girls had high levels of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a hormone produced during pregnancy.

 

In the medical report is an explanation that the hormone levels increased after she had eaten a lot of shrimp, as reported by Sme, while Slovak gynaecologists denied that such an increase could have been caused by food. After Císarová returned from her visit to Italy, Stuška stated that the girls were not pregnant, even though Císarová did not meet with them in person, and the ministry confirmed Italy’s official reports, Sme reported.

 

The ministry’s version of the case was also approved by Interpol and Slovak police, who learned about the case from open sources.

 

“Slovak police became concerned about the girls immediately; the Criminal Police Office of the Slovak Police Presidium in cooperation with Interpol took care of it, and the investigation did not reveal any information about criminal activity,” Slovak police spokesperson Michal Slivka told public broadcaster Slovak Television.”

Adoptions to Italy halted

[The Slovak Spectator 3/25/13 by Roman Cuprik]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “The Centre for International Legal Protection of Children and Youth (CIPC) has finally received the missing post-adoption reports over the Slovak children adopted by families in Italy. The centre will comment on them as soon as it reads them, the SITA newswire reported on April 16.

The adoptions to Italy were halted on February 19 on the heels of a visit to the country on February 13 by Andrea Císarová, the head of the CIPC, a branch of the Labour Ministry, to discuss the missing post-adoption reports. She met with representatives of the Italian Commission for International Adoptions (CAI) and inquired about the reports. However, she was only able to access a few of them, according to the Sme daily.

Slovakia says it is interested in continuing adoptions with Italy since it has reported several positive cases during the past 10 years. At the moment about 269 Slovak children live in Italy, of which 10 percent are handicapped, SITA wrote.”

Slovakia received reports over adoptions to Italy

[Spectator 4/17/13]

Update 2: “The Italian regional agency for interstate adoptions, A.R.A.I., financed educational projects in Slovakia for employees of orphanages, social officials and judges, with members of working groups that prepared the projects receiving some money as well, the Sme daily reported on June 22.

Since 2004, the agency spent almost €190,000 on five projects on which it cooperated with Slovakia’s National Centre for Human Rights, the Association of Towns and Villages of Slovakia (ZMOS) as well as Saint Elizabeth’s College of Health Care and Social Work in Bratislava, according to the documents received by Sme. The daily states some of the names featured on the invoices are recurring, including coordinator Peter Guráň, who worked in the centre; the former and current section head at the Labour Ministry, Nadežda Šebová; and the head of the Centre for International Legal Protection of Children, Alena Mátejová. According to Sme, they received bonuses for the preparation of seminars, lectures and for their membership in the steering committee.

The A.R.A.I. does not agree that the high number of children adopted in Italy is associated in any way with projects that the Italian side financed here. Based on the centre’s agreement with Italy, out of 433 children adopted abroad within the last ten years, over 50 percent were adopted in Italy. She explains that this is because Italian couples are willing to adopt Roma children, siblings, children over seven years of age and children with health problems.

Head of the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights Juraj Horváth says that Guráň’s wife interpreted for Italian couples eager to adopt children from Slovakia. He added that it seems that Guráň did not defend the interests of the centre but used it for personal reasons, as reported by Sme.

Sme also reported in its June 24 issue that certain judges who decided over adoptions to Italy spent a holiday in Turin.”

Sme: Italian adoption agency paid Slovak officials

[Spectator 6/25/13 by Radka Minarechová ]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update 3: “DOZENS of children born in Slovakia each year, unwanted by their own families and unable to find an adoptive family in their home country, have been fortunate enough to find new parents through intercountry adoptions. While there are not enough intercountry adoptions to generate much public interest, such adoptions recently became a hot-button issue, with some media outlets pointing out that the practice may have been conducted as a sort of business by some state officers in the past.

The Centre for International Legal Protection of Children and Youth (CIPC), the office under the Labour Ministry responsible for facilitating intercountry adoptions in Slovakia, has recently undergone a series of changes, starting with the replacement of the centre’s director. Labour Minister Ján Richter appointed new director Andrea Císarová in July 2012, after signs of misconduct emerged within the CIPC, previously led by Alena Mátejová.

A 2012 opposition audit of the CIPC revealed that the centre possessed practically no archival documents from before 2003, and that even after that date the archives were incomplete, with some key documents missing, such as post-adoption reports provided by families from abroad who adopted Slovak children. That, in addition to the fact that the vast majority of children adopted abroad were placed in Italy, attracted the attention of the media and the opposition to Slovakia’s cooperation with Italy on intercountry adoptions.

Many Slovak children adopted in Italy

The CIPC statistics show that between 2003 and 2012 Slovakia sent 433 children for adoptions in foreign countries, with more than half of the outgoing children adopted by families in Italy. Italian families have adopted 234 children from Slovakia, while the Netherlands – with the second highest number of adopted Slovak children – adopted 58. Sweden followed closely with 56 children adopted from Slovakia. Other countries where parentless children from Slovakia have found new families include Canada (34 children), France (27), Austria (12), Germany (6), Monaco (5) and one child was adopted to the Czech Republic.

In 2012 the CIPC cooperated with central

bodies of the states of the Hague Convention of 29 May 1993 on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. These were Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Malta, Morocco and Andorra. Only 12 children were adopted abroad in 2012, according to the CIPC 2012 annual report, all of whom went to Italy, Sweden or the Netherlands.

Italian projects in Slovakia

Two Italian agencies were active in intercountry adoptions in Slovakia until 2010: the private Famiglia e Minori, which lost accreditation in 2010, and the regional agency of the Piedmont region, ARAI.

The latter has invested almost €190,000 in Slovakia within five projects since 2004, the Sme daily reported in early June. The projects included seminars, round tables, as well as trips to Turin for the staff of orphanages, social workers, and even judges: simply anyone who was involved in the decision-making on intercountry adoptions, according to Sme.

ARAI’s partners for the projects, financed mainly from EU funds and Italian regional funds, were the Association of Towns and Villages of Slovakia (ZMOS), the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights and the St Elisabeth University of Public Health and Social Work.

Most of the reported costs went towards rewards for people involved in the projects, according to Sme. Employees of the human rights centre, the centre of labour, as well as the Labour Ministry, received compensation amounting to €333 – €1,000, with the highest sums being paid to the projects’ coordinator, Peter Guráň, who received at least €8,100 for the projects.

Guráň, previously employed at the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights (SNSLP), currently serves as a member of the UN Committee for Children’s Rights as a reporter for Italy. Guráň’s wife worked in the past as an interpreter for Italian adoption agencies, according to Sme.

Between 2004 and 2011 ARAI financed five projects in Slovakia, according to Sme’s report, with overall costs between €15,000 and almost €60,000. Among them, the 2006-2007 project for the employees of orphanages, which included a training seminar for the social workers from orphanages, cost approximately €16,500, of which €6,600 was paid for the preparation and compensation of the lecturers. The lecturers in this case were the officers who signed a contract with the project partner, the SNSLP, usually at a rate of €33 per hour. Lecturing itself cost about €50 per hour, according to Sme.

Two of the projects on which ARAI cooperated with the SNSLP involved a stay in Italy. In 2007 a group of 14 employees of orphanages visited Turin. In 2009 some participants in the project for social workers and judges went to Piedmont again: four employees of labour offices and four judges, the latter selected “on the basis of the highest number of intercountry adoption cases they handled for the region of Piedmont”, the then-director of the CIPC, Alena Mátejová, wrote, as quoted by Sme, from the project documentation. Mátejová travelled along with the project participants.

The judges in question were Klaudia Talašová from Bratislava, Sylvia Szabadosová from Prešov, Júlia Weiszerová from Spišská Nová Ves and Frederika Zozuľáková from Košice. The judges claim they did not know who financed the project, and that they did not consider it a conflict of interest, Sme reported.

Italian families willing to take Roma kids

Guráň admitted that cooperation between Slovakia and Italy was positive because of the ARAI-financed projects.

“No [other] country did so many educational projects and trainings here,” Guráň told Sme. “That, too, contributed to better cooperation.”

The region of Piedmont was the first in Italy to have promoted foster parenting and closing the orphanages, and the ARAI agency is experienced in the field of adoptions, having set up a team for adoptions in 1986, with specialist operators including social workers and psychologists who evaluate the couples applying for adoption, ARAI’s director Anna Maria Colello told The Slovak Spectator.

“This is why we have organised training and exchange projects with various countries to share good practice in safeguarding the rights of minors,” Colello explained.

The reason for the high number of Slovak children adopted to Italy is the fact that Italian families interested in adopting a Slovak child are prepared to adopt a child of Roma ethnicity, as well as siblings, older children and children with health problems, according to Colello.

Over the past nine years 94 children of Slovak origin have found a home with adoptive families through ARAI.

“Italy has the highest number of adoptions with respect to other European countries, because Italian couples are prepared to welcome children with ‘special needs’ declared adoptable by the Slovak courts – that is, children aged seven or more, siblings and children with serious health problems,” Colello reiterated.

New agreements under way

Due to questionable practices of the CIPC in the past, the new leadership under Andrea Císarová initiated changes to the process of intercountry adoptions within the centre at the end of 2012.
The new leadership of the CIPC has changed the structure and functioning of its commission of expert’s advisory teams, which evaluate the documentation of children who are to be subject to intercountry adoptions.

All advisors were joined into one team. As a result, each child has to be evaluated by a team that is comprised of a social worker from the respective Labour, Social Affairs and Family Office; a psychologist from the orphanage which the child in question is coming from; and employees of the CIPC who deal with intercountry adoptions. Another change that the CIPC noted as being very important is that the centre will no longer evaluate and treat children as having specific needs. Also, the director of the CIPC is no longer allowed to decide on the adoption of any child independently, the CIPC said in its annual report. Instead, all children should be evaluated and paired with appropriate families by the commission of experts, the 2012 CIPC annual report states.
Changes also affect the bilateral agreements on intercountry adoptions that Slovakia has and will sign. The ministry announced that it is currently negotiating with Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Norway, Belgium, Spain, San Marino and France, to be added among the countries with whom Slovakia has already signed a bilateral agreement on intercountry adoptions (Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Malta, Andorra and Monaco). The Slovak government is currently waiting for the memoranda on cooperation to be approved in those countries, and when that happens, the documents will be signed, the Labour Ministry’s spokesperson Michal Jurči said, as quoted by the SITA newswire. The already existing agreements, including the one with Italy, are currently being renewed with new conditions, Jurči said.

Meanwhile, the moratorium on adoptions to Italy, which Labour Minister Ján Richter introduced in February 2012 after the CIPC audit results revealed that the centre was missing 117 post-adoption reports for children adopted to Italy, was lifted in May, when the CIPC received all the missing post-adoption reports from Italy. But the future of adoptions from Slovakia to Italy remains unclear.

Císarová claims Italy is an important partner, but she is waiting for the Italian Commission for Intercountry Adoptions, CIPC’s counterpart in Italy, to select trustworthy agencies that would facilitate the adoptions. She did not comment when asked whether the CIPC would cooperate with ARAI in the future.”

Adoptions to Italy raise questions

[Spectator 7/29/13 by Michaela Terenzani – Stanková]