Skip to main content

ETHIOPIA : Ethiopia bans foreign adoptions


GETTY Angelina Jolie adopted her daughter from Ethiopia in 2005
Ethiopia has banned the adoption of children by foreigners amid concerns they face abuse and neglect abroad.
Ethiopia is one of the biggest source countries for international adoptions by US citizens, accounting for about 20% of the total.
Celebrities Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are among those who have adopted children from Ethiopia.
That case triggered a debate about foreign adoption, the BBC's Emmanuel Igunza in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa says.
The adoption process in Ethiopia has also faced serious questions with rights groups saying that it was prone to abuse by human traffickers who saw it as lucrative market.
Two years ago, Denmark stopped the adoption of children from Ethiopia.
Lawmakers now say orphans and other vulnerable children should be cared for under locally available support mechanisms in order to protect them.
But some MPs said that the country has insufficient local services to cater for vulnerable children.
More than 15,000 Ethiopian children have been adopted in the US since 1999.
Many are also taken to European countries such as Spain, France and Italy.


Presentational grey line

What next for Ethiopia's orphans?

Emmanuel Igunza, BBC Africa, Addis Ababa
Debate over foreign adoptions in Ethiopia has been rife since the 2013, so the country's ban didn't come as a major surprise.
The question now is what will happen to the thousands of orphans and vulnerable children who can no longer be adopted?
Parliament says the country's social services should be able to handle the numbers and more importantly local adoptions are still permitted.
However, adoption is not a big part of Ethiopia's culture and many orphans find themselves shuttled between relatives or on the streets.
Ethiopia is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but millions of people live in poverty.
Although there is a fast growing safety net programme to cushion the poorest from the ravages of droughts, critics say the country simply doesn't have the capacity to deal with the huge number of orphans.
The coordinator of a children's orphanage in Addis Ababa, who asked not to be named, said that they would find a way to look after the children in the country.
"These are our children. We are already seeing many Ethiopians choosing to sponsor one child or two through their education and other needs."
"For now things are just up in the air," she added. "But who knows, it might be reversed and these needy children will find families, here or abroad."

Source: BBC 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-VP Mujuru 'was hit on the cheek with a stone by Zanu-PF activist': Spokesperson

Harare - A Zimbabwean opposition leader and her entourage were Thursday attacked with stones by suspected ruling party activists in Harare, her party said. Joice Mujuru, a former vice president of the country who is now leader of the National People's Party (NPP), and her supporters were pelted while on the campaign trail. Zimbabwe is due to hold general elections before July - the first polls since independence hero Robert Mugabe was ousted after 37 years in power. Mujuru is one of the prominent contenders. Mujuru was hit on the cheek with a stone and later addressed a rally in the working class suburb of Glen Norah after she received medical treatment, her spokesperson said. Mujuru "was going to address a rally ...she passed through a shopping centre and when people realised it was her, they came out of the shops to cheer her", Jeffryson Chitando told AFP. "She got out of her car and greeted the people, and that is when Zanu-PF (activists) started thro...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kenya gov't arrests another Odinga ally, AU 'ready to help

Government in Kenya has arrested Miguna Miguna, the other legislator that actively participated in the illegal ‘swearing in’ ceremony of opposition leader Raila Odinga. The self-styled National Resistance Movement ( NRM ) General Miguna Miguna was arrested on Friday morning, shortly after he raised the alarm on a police raid at his home. The National Resistance Movement is the resistance wing of the opposition National Super Alliance Coalition ( NASA ). The Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti confirmed that he was arrested for administering an illegal oath and being a member of  NRM , an organisational that has been declared ‘criminal’. “He publicly declared that he is the general of  NRM , which is already declared a proscribed group. By the time he declared publicly, there was a gazette notice by the minister. How can we let it go? We are law enforcers,” said Kinoti. Kinoti added that Miguna told ‘people to burn portraits of a democratically elec...
Post a Comment
Read more

NIGERIA: Nigeria flying citizens from Libya amid 'endemic' abuse

Nigeria  is flying out thousands of its citizens from  Libya  who face grave abuses such as rape and slavery as they attempt to reach Europe through the war-torn North African nation. Large numbers of Nigerians have been trapped in Libya where they were trying to cross to Italy by sea, but were stopped by local armed factions and the Libyan coastguard. Nigerian officials on a fact-finding mission to Libya expressed shock  at what they saw and heard from victims. "They talked about various abuse - systematic, endemic, and exploitation of all kinds," said Nigeria's Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama. "There were obviously interests that wanted to keep as many of them there as possible because they were commodities." Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris, reporting from the Libyan capital Tripoli, said Nigerians there told of abuses such as slavery, rape, imprisonment, and torture. "These happened either in the hands of the authorities or people-smugg...
Post a Comment
Read more