We often hear that adoptions in Australia should be easier and quicker. But many safeguards in the adoption process are in place for a reason.
The number of Guatemalan children adopted by foreign parents dropped from 4,100 in 2008 to 58 in 2010, after the country drastically curtailed the practice.
Reuters/Jorge Dan Lopez
In 2005, almost 46,000 children were adopted across borders. Ten years later, just 12,000 were. The foreign adoption system is imploding, potentially putting children’s lives in danger.
South Korea continues to have a problem with abandoned babies and ongoing overseas adoption despite economic growth.
Jessica Walton
The 1988 Seoul Olympics shed light on South Korea’s institutionalised practice of international adoption.
‘Millions of children in overseas orphanages … would dearly love to have parents’, claims Tony Abbott, and his government is making intercountry adoption easier.
Screenshot/Intercountry Adoption Australia
Most of the world’s ‘orphans’ are not orphans at all and many are caught up in a global trade in meeting demand for adoption. Making intercountry adoption easier adds to the risks for these children.