Boy’s Irish adoption ‘may not be legal’

THE adoption of a three-year-old Indonesian boy by an Irish man and his wife, who later left him in a Jakarta orphanage, may not have been legal, Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern has conceded.

Indonesian child welfare officials have been working with Irish Government officials to determine whether his adoption was authorised after the Indonesian Ministry of Social Affairs said the adoption hadn’t followed proper procedures and that Tristan, an Irish citizen, could face deportation.

“It may not have been fully legal. We must unblock the legal situation and allow this child to be adopted,” Mr Ahern said last night.

It is believed that the final adoption papers may not have been signed by an Indonesian minister as required.

Tristan, who never lived in Ireland, has spent the past year in an orphanage after his adopted parents, who were living in Indonesia, decided the adoption wasn’t working out.

But the toddler spent 12 months in bureaucratic and diplomatic limbo because, as he had an Irish passport, he was regarded as Irish by the Indonesian authorities.

If the Indonesian adoption, which was approved by the Irish Adoption Board, isn’t legal it could prove a blessing in disguise for the young boy, who up to now could not be put up for re-adoption.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said last night that it had been monitoring his welfare for the past year and never had any reason to question the legality of his adoption until it was questioned in media reports this week.

“We have been working with his parent’s legal team and the orphanage authorities to ensure the best possible long-term outcome for him,” she said.

A spokesman for the Irish Adoption Board said it believed his adoption was legal and had been requesting the family to get a court order squashing their adoption so he could potentially leave the orphanage.

“Serious questions must now be asked as to why the Irish Adoption Board recognised this adoption, when a simple check with the Indonesian authorities would have confirmed its illegality,” said the Adopted Person’s Association, Adoption Ireland last night.

“Procedures must now be reviewed to ensure that this can never happen again.”