Cashing in on Nepal’s youth (RT television)

Cashing in on Nepal’s youth (RT television)

Video:

http://rt.com/news/orphanage-child-trafficking-nepal-761/

Published: 03 March, 2012

Child trafficking is rife in Nepal, with many unregistered orphanages in the capital, Kathmandu, housing thousands of trafficked children. The thriving market for illegal adoption has turned the practice into a highly lucrative business.

Widespread corruption and a high demand from the West for adoptive children are fuelling the growing trade.Now it has emerged that 80 per cent of children put up for adoption already had parents.

Child rights organizations estimate that there are currently around 15,000 children living in orphanages in Kathmandu. The numbers are very difficult to keep track of given that many of the capital’s orphanages are unregistered and as such, not regulated by the government.

Child-traffickers will often travel to far-flung rural areas of Nepal where they prey on poor families, drawing them in with promises of a better life and education for their children. Traffickers can reportedly buy a child for as little as $15 and then turn a profit selling them to one of Kathmandu’s 500 children’s homes.

An orphaned child can then fetch up to $25,000 if sold on to families from abroad.

Conditions in the capital’s orphanages are abysmal with widespread reports of abuse and children being forced into work.

Chinmohan Chaudhary, a Nepalese boy who had lived in one of the orphanages, told RT’s Priya Sridar that the homes would be given rations for the children but the caretakers would take half the food for themselves while giving the kids only a small portion.

“They would also get drunk and would beat us,” he added.

The Nepalese government currently has a freeze on child adoption to Western countries due to rampant cases of abuse, fake documents and false statements.

Ramesh Bhomi from Nepal’s Children Organization says the government ban has only tackled part of the problem.

Ramesh is the owner of 11 legal orphanages across the country which had previously received revenue of $5,000 for every child that was adopted from abroad which went towards the running of the organization.

“It has been difficult for us to run the homes after the suspension of international adoption because we still have to provide for the daily necessities of every child in the home and take care of their medical bills too,” he said.

In the absence of revenue from foreign adoption, Nepalese orphanages have found another revenue stream. Volunteers, tricked through Internet scams into donating money to fake orphanages, are providing a new cash flow fuelling child-trafficking.

The Nepalese government has done relatively little to curtail the trade in children. At the moment, there is no policy that effectively regulates children’s homes in Nepal. Moreover, the state does not provide funding to orphanages, forcing them to make ends meet however they can.


Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

Child care centres running illegally (The Himalayan Times)

Child care centres running illegally

The Himalayan Times

2012-01-29

SURENDRA KAFLE

NEPALGUNJ: All the child protection centres established here to give shelter to neglected children have not met minimum standards.

“District Children Welfare Committee Banke has found that the child centres were set up without meeting the set criteria,” said Child Welfare Officer Shova Shah.

There are 14 children homes in Banke. Among them, seven are permanent, four temporary, two for the visually impaired and one in the process of registration.

More than 150 children are getting shelter in the homes.

Social Development Promotion Centre, Tanwipriya Women and Children Relief Centre, Maya Sadan, Orphanage Madras Gausiya Jyabul Islam, Nawajiwan Centre, Mangal Prasad Higher Secondary School, Shelter House, CIWIN Helpline, Children Rehabilitation Help Centre and Apostal Children Home are among the child protection centres being operated in the district.

Mangal Prasad Higher Secondary School and Tribhuwan Higher Secondary School are providing shelter to visually impaired kids.

As per the survey conducted by the welfare committee, CIWIN Helpline is in B category, whereas others have been categorised C and D, said Shah.

“None of the children homes are running satisfactorily,” she added. She also informed that necessary action will be taken against the homes running illegally.

She said, “Orphans should be kept with their paternal relatives like uncle, grandparents or with maternal kin. Children homes are the last option.”

Shah informed that the United Nations also proposed to discourage children homes as they are being misused.

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Child+care+centres+running+illegally&NewsID=318410

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

Govt extends deadline for inter-country adoptions (The Himalayan Times)

Govt extends deadline for inter-country adoptions

The Himalayan Times

2012-02-25

KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare has extended the deadline for applications from foreigners to adopt Nepali children after it received only a handful of requests.

Foreign parents who want to adopt Nepali children now have two more months to file their application, which was due by mid-February for this year.

“We extended the deadline after we received only around four applications from Indian and Japanese nationals,” said Sher Jung Karki, member-secretary at the Inter Country Adoption Management Committee of the ministry.

Before the system of applying to the government for adopting Nepali children came into effect, interested couples would approach orphanages directly and select children. They would pay huge sums to the orphanages to take away the children of their choice. But now couples can only choose the gender and age of children.

The application has to come through embassies, diplomatic missions and international adoption agencies concerned, said the ministry. Couples seeking to adopt a Nepali child also need to submit documents showing that their government has granted permission to adopt the children.

Karki said the number of foreign nationals, who want to adopt Nepali children, has fallen after the Permanent Bureau of The Hague Conference on Private International Law raised questions over documents of children up for adoption. He said the ministry did not receive a single application for the adoption in 2011 due to pending applications from 2009/10.

The European countries’ baning of adoption of Nepali children after ‘extensive cases of abuse, fake documents and false statements’ has also driven interest in Nepali children down. Italian, French and Spanish nationals were enthusiastic about raising a child from Nepal before the ban. The ministry received around 500 such applications each year from those countries and the US.

Karki informed that the US launched a probe into 65 cases of adoption for a year, but did not find irregularities.

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Govt+extends+deadline+for++inter-country+adoptions&NewsID=322004

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

Great expectations gone awry (Republica)

Great expectations gone awry

Republica:

http://myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=41086


KALENDRA SEJUWAL

SURKHET, Jan 25: Twenty two children brought to the capital from several villages of Surkhet and Kalikot with the lure of top class education for negligible charges have been rescued by their parents after they found out that the kids were kept as captives in poor conditions at the school.

The parents said they suspected that their children would have been sold had they not intervened on time.

"We were told that our children would be admitted to a branch school of Budhanilkantha school where they could study till the higher level for just Rs 40,000,” said Dhanbahadur Khadka of Sipkhana, Kalikot.

“The children sounded as if they were under some distress when we called them. We then visited the school to see if everything was all right and the truth came to surface,” he added. According to him, the parents were not allowed to go inside the school at first. “But we forced our way in and found that the children were crammed in a single room that was dark and very small.”

Khadka had handed over his son to his relative Netra Bahadur on November 19 along with the demanded amount of Rs 40,000 which he had borrowed against a very high interest. The children were rescued from the school on January 11 under Khadka's initiation.

According to the parents, the school principal Dayalaxmi Shrestha was the mastermind of the plot. With the help of Prem Saud, Netrabahadur, Birendra Dhami and Mahesh, all of them residents of Kalikot district, Shrestha was able to gather the children at the school situated in Siddhartha Banasthali area and went by the name of MBS High School.

In the month of November alone, 84 children from Seuna, Sikhana, Mumra, Mehalmudi and other villages, were brought to the school.

The children who have returned home with their parents painted a hellish picture of the life inside the school. “We were never given fresh and enough food,” said nine years old Charitra Sahakari. “We took care of all their household chores. We were made to work like slaves,” added 10-year-old Rasila Yogi.

The children were found to be in a very poor health condition. “Many of them suffer from dysentery and diarrhea,” said Khadka.

On the other hand, the government has kept quiet despite being aware of the ongoing situation at the school. According to Khadka, the children were rescued with the help of an education officer Suresh Shahi.

“Shahi had asked the principal Shrestha to produce legal documents of the school which she could not,” Khadka said, adding, “however, no action has been taken against her yet.”


Published on 2012-01-25


Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

DOS Adoption Notice - Nepal Relinquishment Cases

Nepal

January 19, 2012

Notice: U.S. Department of State Continues to Recommend Against Adopting from Nepal

On August 6, 2010, the U. S. Department of State and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) suspended processing of new adoption cases from Nepal involving children claimed to have been found abandoned, because documents presented in support of the abandonment of these children in Nepal were unreliable. Cases involving relinquishment by known birth parent(s) were not affected by the suspension.

Recently, the Government of Nepal informed the U.S. Department of State that there may be a small number of children who will be found eligible for intercountry adoption by the Government of Nepal as relinquishment cases in 2012. The U.S. Department of State continues to strongly recommend that prospective adoptive parents refrain from adopting children from Nepal due to grave concerns about the reliability of Nepal’s adoption system and credible reports that children have been stolen from birth parents, who did not intend to irrevocably relinquish parental rights as required by INA 101(b)(1)(F). We also strongly urge adoption service providers not to accept new applications for adoption from Nepal.

Due to the concerns regarding reliability of Nepal's adoption system, any future relinquishment cases received by the Embassy in Kathmandu will require complex investigations which may include birth parent interviews and DNA testing. Although we have not yet received these cases, and cannot estimate the amount of time for any investigation, we caution that they may require significant time and expenses that would likely raise the overall costs for prospective adoptive parents.

The U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu continues to encourage the Government of Nepal to work with the international community, including the Hague Permanent Bureau, to implement the Hague Adoption Convention and reform its adoption process to protect children and families.

We will continue to keep you updated through adoption.state.gov as additional information is received. This link will also provide additional information and past adoption notices and alerts on the detailed concerns found in Nepal adoptions.

http://adoption.state.gov/country_information/country_specific_alerts_notices.php?alert_notice_type=notices&alert_notice_file=nepal_4

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

PEAR Website Announcement

Our website will be down December 26 to January 6 for a redesign. Due to this, our web comments, membership forms and donate buttons will be inoperable.


Please direct your correspondence to the following board members:

Comments and requests for assistance:
Gina Pollock
Vice President Advocacy and NGO/Government Relations
rmprhp@yahoo.com

Membership Issues:
Shanna Wright
Secretary and Membership Chair
shanjwright@gmail.com

Donations and financial issues:
Margaret Weeks
Treasurer
meweek@aol.com

All other correspondence:
Kimberly Kennedy
President
kackennedy_2000@yahoo.com

Thank you for your continued patience and support!

Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/

Govt opens applications for inter-country adoption (Republica)

***Please note: although Nepal has announced it is accepting applications for intercountry adoption, the US Suspension on processing I 600 petitions for abandoned children remains in place. See: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/08/145767.htm

Govt opens applications for inter-country adoption

REPUBLICA

ARJUN POUDEL

KATHMANDU, Nov 29: After receiving no application for inter-country adoption in 2011, the government has asked prospective foreign parents to apply for adopting Nepali orphans for the year 2012.

The Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MWCSW) has formally invited applications through concerned embassies, diplomatic missions and international adoption agencies for the first time after inter-country adotption was suspended in 2009.

The ministry had suspended inter-country adoption following disclosure of rampant irregularities in the process. Some European countries including USA had also suspended adoption of Nepali children indefinitely after revelation of irregularities. Before the suspension, the ministry used to receive more than 500 such applications each year.

“We have completed listing eligible children for adoption for 2012. Altogether 252 children are eligible for adoption,” the legal officer at the ministry, Sher Jung Karki, said. Children formally relinquished by the family will also be put on offer for adoption, he said.

Some of the children´s homes had stopped providing shelter to newcomer orphans since a year after foreign countries stopped taking in Nepali children. The children´s homes cited financial problems for stopping providing shelter to newcomer orphans. Foreign adoption is one of the main financial sources of the orphanages.

The government has also introduced strict measures after reports of irregularities in adoption were disclosed.

Karki said that the foreign parents seeking to adopt Nepali children cannot approach the children directly. “Prospective parents cannot visit Nepal to select children without the consent of the Nepal government. They have to apply through the Internet,” the legal officer at the ministry, Karki, stated. The ministry has asked foreign parents to submit application within three days from November 17.

He also said the adopting parents need to submit documents concerning permission from their respective governments for adoption and should apply through registered adoption agencies.

The government had also fixed fee for adoption. Adopting parents have to pay US$ 8,000 and the orphanage will get only US$ 5,000 per child. The US$ 3,000 will go to the state and it will be spent for the welfare of children.

Previously adopting parents would approach the concerned orphanage directly and select a child. They would pay huge amount to the orphanages to take away the children of their choice. Karki said that adopting parents from now on will be able to choose only gender and age of the children.

The ministry says 29 orphanages have renewed their licenses for inter-country adoption. Seven new orphanages have acquired licenses for adoption. Parents from around 72 countries adopt Nepali children.

Published on 2011-11-29

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=38929


Ethics, Transparency, Support
~ What All Adoptions Deserve.
http://www.pear-now.org/