How International Adoption is Failing Children?

--

“No one should remove children from healthy, loving parents who are struggling in poverty to be placed with strangers who are given money to care for them.”

--

excerpt:

The System Is Failing Children

In early June 2024, Pakistani child welfare activist Sarim Burney was arrested on charges of child trafficking. According to the report filed against him, Burney and two associates allegedly forged documents to facilitate the adoption of three baby girls by falsely making it seem like they were orphans.

The complaint that led to this case was initially filed by US authorities, which led to the Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to open an investigation into the process by which Burney and his organization put these children up for adoption. In light of the ongoing investigation against Burney, the Sindh government has taken over his welfare trust.

Syed Muaz Shah, a lawyer and expert on Islamic jurisprudence who is representing two of the families involved in this case, points out that clear discrepancies by Burney and his legal team show a lack of respect for both adoptees and prospective adoptive parents.

“Even in the best situations, there is trauma, whether perceived or not.”

“These parents are guided by adoption agencies in the US, who have a legal duty to guide them appropriately, and they misguided them,” he stated. In the Burney case, Shah blames the agencies involved, advocating for the families’ pure intentions to build a life for a child from their home country.

The complex international adoption process, which involves prospective families, agencies in both countries, and a slew of legal teams, often lacks sufficient oversight, both during the process and once the adoption is complete. This can lead to children being wrongly taken from their birth parents by agencies—some of which ignore potential red flags that the children entering into the adoption system might, in fact, already have homes.

Moreover, adoptive parents aren’t always well-meaning.  JS Lee, an author, artist, and musician, describes herself as “the sole child purchased from Korea by a White American couple who had six biological children of their own.” Lee has been open about her own experience as a transracial adoptee, sharing the abuse she faced from a young age and the trauma she had from growing up around people who claimed to be “color-blind.”

“I acknowledge that there are a variety of adoption experiences. Some adoptees do feel they’ve been saved—particularly those who were true war orphans and those who had medical needs. But even in the best situations, there is trauma, whether perceived or not. Many of us grow up parroting what we hear from others only to reflect more deeply with age and safety,” Lee says of the trauma caused by interracial adoptions and a system that ignores adoptee voices.

While international adoptions have been documented as early as the 1950s, many of the challenges and harms faced by adoptees have only come to light more recently. Burney’s case of falsified documents is similar to the cases in Uganda, reported on in 2018, and South Korea, where it was revealed two years ago that for some 60 years, 200,000 adoptees from the country may have had their documents falsified.

When intercountry—particularly interracial—adoptees are placed in a home that doesn’t celebrate or share their culture, the disconnect can cause an identity crisis throughout their lifetime.

KEEP READING: https://nonprofitquarterly.org/how-international-adoption-is-failing-children/