Voices for Vietnam Adoption Integrity

Monday June 30th, CNN presented this report titled US Vietnam Adoptions End, featuring some very strong statements from U.S. Ambassador Michael Michalak.

On July 1st PBS’s News Hour did a segment on International Adoption issues, highlighting Vietnam. The report featured a discussion with Susan Soon-Keum Cox, Vice President of Public Policy and External Affairs at Holt [...]

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Although all is mostly quiet in the world of Vietnam Adoptions, the July 1 deadline for dossier submission and the September 1 deadline for matches are quickly approaching. Many have asked how, in a program that is oversaturated with waiting parents, is it beneficial to keep dossier submissions open through July 1? Some agencies are [...]

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The State Department has posted a new “Fact Sheet” for Vietnam, dated June 2008.
While much of the information is a re-wording of previous announcements, there is some new information here, including the following:
Over the course of 28 months (January 2006 to April 2008), 1403 orphans adopted from Vietnam were issued visas to the United States. [...]

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USCIS has updated their website with this PDF dated May 29, 2008 that reflects the long-awaited DNA testing.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that its office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam is implementing a DNA testing requirement for Vietnamese adoption cases where the birth parent(s) of the adopted child has been identified. [...]

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JCICS is calling for a campaign by agencies, adoptive parents, prospective adoptive parents, advocates and all of those who have an interest in international adoption in Vietnam to join the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Co-Chairs and sign their letter to Secretary Condoleezza Rice in support of their recommendations for the continuation of adoptions [...]

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From the Vietnamese Press, clarification on the deadline dates and also a glimmer of hope for the future of adoptions from Vietnam…
Head of the Ministry’s Department for International Child Adoption Vu Duc Long added that Vietnam will stop taking new adoption applications from the US from July 1.
According to the official, the decision not [...]

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This is reposted with permission from Linh Song of Ethica. As a personal note from the editor, I hope we will take her words to heart. We all want to react and Do Something but let’s be careful that our actions do not have unintended consequences.
> “TRY! Make some calls. Contact your resources. NOW.”
You’re exactly [...]

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Vietnam will cancel baby-adoption agreement with U.S.
Vietnam will end a baby-adoption agreement with the United States after being accused of allowing corruption and baby-selling, government officials said Monday.
The agreement was being considered for renewal but the two sides remained far apart over revisions, said Vu Duc Long, director of Vietnam’s International Adoption Agency. The agreement [...]

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Posted today on the wire:
Vietnam has failed to police its adoption system, allowing corruption, fraud and baby-selling to flourish, the U.S. Embassy says in a new report obtained by The Associated Press.
The nine-page document describes brokers scouring villages for babies, hospitals selling infants whose mothers cannot pay their bills, and a grandmother giving away her [...]

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It’s my guess that everyone connected to Vietnam adoptions has seen the internal USCIS memo regarding a new DNA requirement that was posted on Bring Our Children Home yesterday. This memo was news to us as it was to most people in the adoption community - although it appears that USCIS did notify some agencies [...]

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