Adoption from Ethiopia and US progressed

Delegations from the Adoption Authority (AAI) have visited Ethiopia and the US to examine the possibility of bilateral agreements to allow adoption from both jurisdictions.

A delegation, headed by AAI chairman Geoffrey Shannon, visited Washington DC at the end of March to discuss issues in relation to adoptions from Florida with the US state department.

“The meeting was very positive and productive for both sides. It is hoped that the current issues can be resolved as soon as possible,” said a statement.

Under the Adoption Act 2010, Irish people can only adopt from countries that have ratified the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption or with which Ireland has a bilateral agreement.

An AAI delegation last November also met with representatives of the US state department to discuss “a number of concerns” about the adoption process in Florida.

The US state is the most popular state for Irish people who wish to adopt children from the US. Five children were adopted from there last year.

However, issues have been raised about adoption practices in the state for some time.

In particular, these have centred on the circumstances around the securing of consent from natural mothers to the adoption, and the issue of subsidiarity — where adoption is examined only after all other options for the care of the child within his or her country of origin have been explored.

The AAI has also sent a group to Ethiopia in recent weeks to carry out a field trip, looking at the situation in relation to adoption on the ground in the African country.

There has been a growing clamour in recent months for Ireland to agree a bilateral agreement with Ethiopia in order to begin adopting from the country, with a large number of TDs questioning Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald on the subject.

A recent delegation from the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee to the country has also raised the issue.

However, numerous allegations of corruption, fraud, and the direct recruitment of children from birth parents by adoption service providers in Ethiopia have been raised in recent months, most notably by the US state department.