Grieving parents abducting tsunami orphans

Grieving families of Sri Lankan children who perished in the tsunamis are abducting orphans from the disaster area without approval, a move denounced today by the government and an aid organisation.

An official from the Department of Child Care and Protection said he had heard of a dozen cases in Galle and Matara, on Sri Lanka’s southern coast, in which orphaned children had been taken in by families that lost loved ones. He asked families to stop.

The southern coast took the main brunt of Sunday’s massive earthquake-generated tsunamis. As of today, 27,268 people had died on the island, and children accounted for a third of the victims.

The Save the Children organisation in Sri Lanka said it had also heard of impromptu adoptions.

“The families which are doing this are trying to deal with their own grief … of having lost their children,” said Maleec Calyanaratne, the group’s spokeswoman. “But they must understand that this is not the way to go about it.”

She said the government’s Child Protection Authority was trying to track down families that had taken in orphans.

“We are advising people that they should follow the proper procedure of adoption … otherwise there will be long-term problems,” Calyanaratne said.

The group is delivering critical supplies to the devastated areas, she said.

Calyanaratne said they have been receiving applications and requests from parents and families who lost their own children to adopt orphans from the tsunami.

“There is no quick-fix solution. Before adoption you need to know a lot about the families. Without those details, you are risking the orphans’ future,” she said.