MOSCOW, September 15 (RIA Novosti) - The United States will finally lift a six-year ban on child adoption from Vietnam, Time Magazine reported on Monday.
“Both countries know that adoption is good for these kids,” said Tad Kincaid, founder of an organization in Ho Chi Minh City called Orphan Impact.
While adoptions will greatly help children suffering under Vietnam’s lack of a foster-care system, new restrictions will only allow Americans to adopt Vietnamese children over the age of five, with siblings, or disabilities, according to the magazine. Adoption agencies, Dillon International Inc and Holt International Children’s Services Inc are currently the only agencies licensed to operate in Vietnam since the ban has been lifted.
The United States placed the ban on adoption in 2008 in response to allegations of baby-selling and investigations which revealed violations including forged documents, mothers coerced into giving up their children, and children unknowingly put up for adoption, Bloomberg reported. Prior to the new agreement, 40 adoption agencies operated in Vietnam.
In addition to Vietnam’s restrictions, other countries have also limited the United State in adoptions causing a 69 percent drop in US adoptions from overseas since its peak in 2004.
According to the Vietnamese Labor and Social affairs ministry, there were some 236,224 orphans in the country in 2013.
