Time running out on Vietnamese adoptions

UNLESS a solution is found within a matter of weeks the processing of all international adoptions from Vietnam will halt on May 1.

For up to 300 Irish couples who are being assessed by the HSE for foreign adoption or, having completed the assessment are waiting to be assigned a child from Vietnam, this is their worst nightmare come true. Most parents spend up to four years being assessed by social workers for inter-country adoption suitability.

In recent weeks prospective adoptive parents were informed that the bilateral agreement between then minister for children, Brian Lenihan, will expire in May, and that the Irish Government was not extending it, but wanted to put a new agreement in place. A draft of this bilateral agreement was sent to Vietnam, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, earlier this month — less than two months before the old agreement is due to expire.