[Rhyleigh]

Please forgive me if this sounds like a stupid question:

I was wondering if any of the war orphans in Iraq will ever become available for adoption. If that should ever become possible, where would I go to find an agency that could arrange such an adoption for me?


Thank you for your indulgence. I'm new here, and I'm hoping to find the resources that I need to make my first international adoption.

[crathke]

I've wondered the same thing myself.

I seem to recall hearing something similar about the children who were orphaned in Afghanistan and the response then was twofold--that an adoption program would take quite some time to set up (I guess it's not on the list of priorities when setting up a new government) and, too, there may be "issues" because so many of the children would be Muslim and so many adopting families are....well, not Muslim. (I may be totally off base on that part and I certainly don't mean to offend anyone).

If you feel very strongly about adopting in Iraq, my advice would be to just keep trolling these boards and the internet in general. Or contact some of the larger agencies and see what they have to say?

[Rhyleigh]

Thanks Courtney, for responding to my post.

You have made a valid point about religion being an issue.

I am Catholic, myself, but since I was born and raised in the U.S., I guess I just forgot that religion can be a deciding factor in the life of a helpless child. (sigh)

Thanks for the advice, I will certainly keep trolling these boards and the internet for more information.


Rhyleigh

[sak9645]

it is impossible to adopt, for at least a year or two, from a country that has been through a major conflict or natural disaster. There are many reasons:

1. It is often hard to tell, in the chaos, which children are truly orphans and which children have parents or other relatives who can care for them. One parent may have fled across the border temporarily. One may be in a refugee camp. The children may have gotten separated from their parents when their home burned down, and may be in another refugee camp. Uncles, aunts, and cousins may be trying to figure out how to put their lives together, with their possessions looted and their business destroyed. It could take a year or more for parents and children to find each other; wouldn't it be terrible for a parent to learn that the child he/she was desperately trying to find had been sent to another country and a new set of parents? And relatives who are currently in bad circumstances may feel better able to take care of the child whose parents have died, once they can rebuild their home, find work, and salvage their possessions. In general, it is more desirable for an orphaned child to remain within his/her own birth country and with loving relatives or neighbors, if that is at all possible. That is the principle on which the Hague Convention is based, and on which most adoption authorities agree. International adoption should be encouraged, but only in cases where the child cannot be maintained in his/her own family, community, and country.

2. Adoption is a legal process. Even if it could be determined that a child's parents were dead or long gone and that no other relative was available to care for him/her, there would need to be a legal declaration that the child is orphaned, abandoned, or relinquished and, therefore, available for adoption. There would also need to be a legal adoption, or else a legal granting of custody to someone who plans to adopt the child overseas. When a country has been decimated by war or natural disaster, the government (to the extent that it still exists) is usually busy finding food and clean water for its citizens, burying the dead, providing electricity, preventing looting, and so on. The courts may or may not be functioning at all and, if they are, may be dealing with such matters as what to do with enemies of the government and so on. In the case of a complete change of government, there may need to be a whole new body of laws put into place, including laws governing parentless children, before the courts can even act on an adoption case. It would be contrary to the whole notion of child protection to just ship children off to new situations, without appropriate laws and regulations being applied to ensure that the child does not wind up enslaved, in a house of prostitution, with an abusive family, etc.

3. Conditions in a country may remain unsafe, even after a natural disaster or war is officially over. In such a case, it is highly unlikely that agencies would put staff in danger, by sending them off to evaluate children, and that agencies would put families in danger by sending them into the country to complete an adoption. In addition, the U.S. government sometimes deems conditions in a country to be so dangerous that U.S. Embassy workers are pulled out and cannot process adoption and other visas. There have been some cases where visas have been processed in a neighboring country; however, the U.S. will do this only if it is acceptable to the birth country and if adoption is consistent with the birth country's laws.

4. Transportation and communications are often disrupted in a country that has seen war or natural disaster. With a country like Iraq or Afghanistan, commercial aircraft may not yet be able to go even to major cities. Roads may be in total disarray. Telephones may not work and Fedex won't deliver. Adoption workers and families cannot fly in on military aircraft, ride in tanks, or communicate with orphanages whose phones and faxes have been out for weeks. How will the children come home? It is highly unlikely that there will be a massive babylift on the order of the one that occurred during the war in Viet Nam.

In the case of Iraq and other Islamic countries, there are some other considerations. Some of the more liberal Islamic countries may permit adoptions of Muslim children -- usually by relatives, citizens of the country living abroad, or other Muslims.

Other Islamic countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan under the Taliban, have adhered strictly to Shaaria, the Muslim religious law. While Muhammed encouraged people to care for orphans -- and the Muslim community generally is VERY good at caring for parentless children -- the whole concept of this care is different from adoption as it is interpreted in the U.S. and many other countries. As an example, the orphan must retain the surname name of his/her biological father and is not assumed to have automatic inheritance rights and such. Overall, the relationship is more like foster parenting, where full legal ties with the birth family are not severed.

Because of this, countries that follow Shaaria strictly may not permit a child to go into a family, even a Muslim family, that will follow Western custom with regard to adoption. And U.S. law does not allow the granting of adoption visas in situations where the child is not totally relinquished and where he/she has not been or will not be adopted in the American sense and given the same status as biological children of the family.

People who wish to help parentless children in countries that have seen war or natural disaster in the very recent past can best do so by contributing to reputable organizations that work in those countries. They can help finance the building of schools. They can provide clothing, toys, food, and school supplies to children. They can support organizations that assist refugees in reuniting with family members, or that help people rebuild their small businesses and such. They can support the improvement of hospitals and public health services so that mothers get prenatal care and competent help at delivery, so that kids get immunized, and so on.

After a time, perhaps, international adoption will be possible IN SOME COUNTRIES. Whether it will be possible in Iraq remains to be seen.

There is a very good discussion of this whole subject on the website of the U.S. State Department. Go to http://travel.state.gov/adopt and click on "Iraq."

Sharon