INS PROBES BABY
SELLING IN CAMBODIA
Copyright 2002 www.independent.co.uk
[ April 22nd 2002 ]
Howard
Kirk returned to Texas from Cambodia last week
without the little boy he and his wife hope to
adopt. Kirk had spent nearly a week with little
Sara taking in the sights and talking with the
American Embassy. But he and his wife were unable
to get the U.S. visa they needed to take the youngster
home to Gainesville, Texas.
The Kirks
are in the same fix as 400 to 500 other American
families, including Hollywood stars Billy Bob
Thornton and Angelina Jolie. In late December,
the Immigration and Naturalization Service stopped
granting visas for adoptive children from Cambodia
because of baby-selling allegations. A U.S.-Cambodian
task force is investigating, going from orphanage
to orphanage.
In the
past few weeks, the INS started granting visas
to the 120 families like the Kirks who had been
issued adoption decrees in Cambodia before the
ban. The agency said it hopes to clear those cases
by the end of April. But the INS has yet to decide
what to do with the hundreds of other cases. "I'm
glad they're finally moving, but this has been
unconscionably long," said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.
He added: "For a newborn and for parents, every
day is a new challenge, a new milestone in a child's
life."
Joann
Cleland, a kindergarten teacher from Manahawkin,
N.J., is worried about the 22-month-old she calls
Patrick, who was hospitalized this month in Cambodia
after contracting dengue fever. Cleland does not
have an adoption decree and has been lobbying
for a medical waiver. "He's going to be susceptible
to so many other illnesses in the orphanage. We
need to get him home to get him to an American
doctor," Cleland said.
In fiscal
year 2001, Americans adopted 19,237 foreign children,
407 of them from Cambodia, the 10th-ranked source
country. China and Russia topped the list with
more than 4,681 and 4,279 adoptions, respectively.
Until the suspension, Cambodia was a growing source
of adoptive children. Parents could adopt infants
and young children and the process - at three
to six months - was relatively short. But the
per capita income in Cambodia is $240 per year,
leading some women to sell their children for
less than $100 each, according to INS spokesman
Bill Strassberger. "What happens when you close
a country or close a system down, what you're
doing is punishing innocent families for maybe
the work of a handful," complained Sen. Mary Landrieu,
D-La., who co-chairs the Congressional Coalition
on Adoption. "This has not been the INS's finest
hour."
Jolie
filmed Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in Cambodia, and
she and her husband later adopted a boy from a
Cambodian orphanage. But they cannot bring the
baby to the United States. Kirk and his wife,
Kris, received approval from Cambodia seven months
ago for Sara's adoption but do not have a visa
because of a discrepancy: They said they have
been told that the task force thinks that Sara
- based on his teeth - is older than the 6 years
his records indicate.
Eileen
and Jef Christian of suburban Philadelphia also
have an adoption decree but were told their daughter's
adoption was advertised in Cambodia for only two
months instead of the required three. "If ever
we thought that we were participating in child
trafficking, I would be horrified," said Eileen
Christian, a lawyer who has been in Phnom Penh,
staying at a hotel with 8-month-old Kelly since
April 12.
Her husband,
a laid-off computer programmer, planned to fly
to Phnom Penh this week. He or his wife will stay
with Kelly until they can bring her home. The
$75-a-night hotel bill is on top of the $12,750
agency fee, $2,500 airline tickets and thousands
in incidental costs. "We're going because she's
8 months old," he said, "and we think it's a critical
time for the attachment process."
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