Corruption in Vietnam Adoptions

As the majority of you know, we adopted our sweet Mia from Vietnam in July of 2006, after the program had been shut down for 2 years because of corruption. Now, Vietnam is closed again to any new adoptions for the same reason and nobody has any idea of when they will open back up.

This makes me sad, personally, because I saw, firsthand how many orphaned kids there were in just ONE orphanage there. And there are hundreds of them... So now what happens to those kids? They have to pay the price because there are money-hungry people in the world who don't care about them and would rather they sit in orphanages without a real family while there are hundreds or thousands of willing families who would love to adopt them?
It is just so hard to swallow...
Part of me thinks about how lucky and blessed we are to have brought Mia home when we did, but on the other hand, it's hard not to think of all the kids that were left behind and may not get homes for years.
This is something that is important for us to keep up with, as adoptive parents, since Mia will most likely want to know more details as she gets older.
Also, we would love to adopt a little boy one day and our obvious first choice would be from Vietnam.
So, here is a blog that I found on this subject that tells all about what's going on with Vietnamese adoptions now:

Corruption in Vietnam Adoptions

Jan 12th, 2009 by Nicki

The Washington Post, today, printed this short yet powerful look at International Adoption. Of specific interest to those of us involved in adoptions from Vietnam is this bit:

A cable from the U.S. embassy in Vietnam, recently obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism, said that, “while there are legitimate orphans in Vietnam, the corruption in the adoption process has become so widespread that [the embassy] believes that there is fraud in the overwhelming majority of cases of infants offered for international adoption.”

This is the first time we have really heard that fraud has tainted the vast majority of adoptions. This is a hard pill to swallow and certain one that conflicts with what we’ve heard from such Agency Advocacy organizations as JCICS who, in their most recent position paper, refer to the corruption in Vietnam adoptions as “isolated reports of abuse”.

In fact, the very level of abuse and fraud is something that interests many. Some believe that the US government is grossly exaggerating the level of corruption. Others believe that the corruption has been much closer to the statement from the US Embassy, above, and this only verifies what has long been understood and experienced first hand.

Meanwhile adoptions continue in Vietnam with families still awaiting I600 approval for referrals received before the shutdown and some families fighting to bring home the babies they were referred after the shutdown or for whom they received a NOID. Simultaneously, both the US government and Vietnam’s government have received pressure from American citizens and Agency lobby groups to arrive at a new agreement and open doors to US-Vietnam adoptions again, as soon as possible. Truly every orphan without a chance at reuniting with their natural family or being adopted domestically in Vietnam deserves the chance at a permanent stable family abroad. But is it wise, given the extent of fraud that exists, to rush a new agreement that may inadvertently continue to hurt the very orphans we hope to help?

We may never know the true extent of corruption in Vietnam but for those of us who have already completed our adoptions, it is important that we keep abreast of these investigations and studies as they supply vital pieces of information that will be of value as our adopted children grow. It is tempting to be convinced that certainly our own adoptions could not have been tainted but the reality is that few of us can say with complete certainty that our adoption process was untouched by any fraud or corruption. Our children will have questions and eventually they will have the means to research their own answers. Meanwhile we can do the best we can to read, with an open heart and mind, the information as it becomes available that might lead us to a better understanding of the true situation that existed during the 2006-2008 span of adoptions in Vietnam.