Ambassador flies out to sort Tristan case

THE Irish ambassador to Indonesia is set to travel to Jakarta to meet officials investigating the adoption of Tristan Dowse by an Irish man and his wife.

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed yesterday that Mr Hugh Swift is due to travel from his base in Singapore in the coming days to try and resolve the legal issues.

While there he will also visit the orphanage in Jakarta where the three-year-old has been cared for since his adoptive parents, Joe and Lala Dowse, returned him after claiming the adoption was not working out. The boy was just two-months-old when he was adopted.

The family has denied he was returned after Lala Dowse became pregnant.

“The Ambassador will meet with Indonesian government officials to try and establish the legality of Tristan’s adoption,” a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed.

Tristan’s adoption was certified in 2001 by the Irish Adoption Board and he was granted Irish citizenship.

However, his future remains uncertain after it subsequently emerged that the adoption may not be legal and his newly-acquired citizenship could restrict any future adoption.

A decision by the Indonesian Social Affairs Ministry regarding the legality of the adoption was expected yesterday, but the court hearing was cancelled.

Meanwhile, Adoption Ireland has expressed concern that efforts to have Tristan re-adopted, however well meaning, are not in his best interests.

The organisation has repeated its call for the child to be reunited with his natural parents and has called on the Irish Adoption Authority to set up a child sponsorship programme for Tristan.

In a statement, the organisation called for the guiding principles for adoption as contained in the Hague Convention to be followed.

“The Hague Convention states that ‘appropriate measures must be taken to enable the child to remain in the care of his or her family of origin’ and that all possible alternatives must be explored before a child is removed from his/her country of origin.”

Ireland is expected to ratify the Hague Convention for the Protection of Children in Intercountry Adoption later this year.