Romania urged to relax blanket adoption ban

THOUSANDS of people desperate to adopt a child are being urged to lobby their MEPs to force Romania to relax a blanket ban on foreign adoptions.

A law due to be passed this month, will make it almost impossible for foreigners to adopt Romanian infants, despite a low interest in adoption there and the large number of children in institutional care.

Around 800 Romanian children have been adopted by Irish couples since 1990.

Marian Connolly of Parents of Adopted Romanian Children said it was the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Romania, British MEP Emma Nicholson, herself a foster parent of an Iraqi child, who was pushing for the ban.

Ms Connolly agreed corrupt adoption practices in Romania should be rooted out but insisted it could be done without the ban.

“How can you tell a child to stay in an orphanage until the EU gets its act together so that Romania can join,” she asked.

“Other countries suspended their adoption laws until they got it right. Why couldn’t Romania do that?”

Child welfare groups are lobbying the Romanian government to change the bill; the US is leaning on Prime Minister Adrian Nastase and the US Congress has demanded a more liberal approach.

The bill bans the adoption of Romanians under the age of two, allows foreign adoption only as a last resort and by ‘close relatives’, eg grandparents living abroad. There are 50,000 children in institutional care and 35,000 in social services care in Romania.