Vietnam is to end a baby adoption agreement with the US after being accused of allowing corruption and baby-selling, officials said yesterday.
The agreement was being considered for renewal but the two sides remained far apart over revisions, said Vu Duc Long, director of Vietnam’s International Adoption Agency.
The agreement expires on Sept. 1.
The decision was made after the US embassy in Hanoi released a report earlier this month alleging pervasive corruption and baby-selling in Vietnam’s adoption system.
The report listed cases in which infants were sold or birth mothers were pressured to give up their babies.
In some other cases the report described brokers going to villages in search for babies who could be possibly put up for adoption.
It also said some US adoption agencies have been paying orphanage directors for referrals.
Some others have bribed orphanage officials by taking them on shopping sprees and junkets to the US in return for a flow of babies, it said.
ANGRY RESPONSE
In an angry response, Vietnamese officials denied the charges, calling the US side’s allegations “unfair.”
“They can say whatever they want, but we are not going to renew it,” Long said.
In a letter sent to the US embassy in Hanoi on Friday, Vietnam said that it would stop taking adoption applications from US families after July 1.
The letter said, however, that the country would continue to process applications of families who are matched with babies before July 1.
The decision will also lead to the closure of 42 US adoption agencies operating in Vietnam, Long said.
The US embassy said it respected Hanoi’s latest decision, but were confident about the accuracy of the report.
“The government of Vietnam has made their own decision, but we believe that our report speaks for itself,” US embassy spokeswoman Angela Aggeler said.
PREVIOUS SUSPENSION
Vietnam had previously suspended all adoptions with foreign countries in 2003 as part of its efforts to improve the legal system by centralizing adoption, in an attempt to prevent rampant corruption.
A bilateral agreement between the US and Vietnam was resumed in 2005.
Since then adoptions from Vietnam have boomed with more than 1,200 Vietnamese children being adopted by Americans over the 18 months ending on March 31.
Last year alone, Americans adopted at least 828 Vietnamese children.
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