The Philip DeFranco Show - MS 1.17 This Is The Illegal Adoption Crisis Happening in The USA & Uganda...

Episode Date: January 17, 2019

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Hello, hello, welcome to your Extra Morning Show. My name is Philip DeFranco, and today we're going to talk about adoption. But we're not gonna be talking about kind of your just everyday run-of-the-mill adoption. In recent months, we've just been bombarded with endless coverage of heartbreaking stories of child separation occurring,

whether in the United States or abroad. We saw instances where children were being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, and in some of the most extreme cases, put up for adoption in America without their parents' consent. As we looked more into it, it turns out that these wrongful adoptions,

as they've come to be known, aren't new at all. And in fact, as of late, inter-country child adoption has become a booming industry. And so much so that it was massive news where in 2014, Russia banned Americans from adopting children. In 2017, you had China placing stricter regulations on adoption, making it increasingly difficult

to navigate their adoption bureaucracy. And most recently, in 2018, you increasingly difficult to navigate their adoption bureaucracy. And most recently in 2018, you had Ethiopia banning international adoption altogether. Now it can be argued that most, if not all of the people who adopt children from abroad do so with the hope of giving that child a better life. Many of the kids are faced with abandonment, extreme poverty, and oftentimes in desperate need

of medical treatment and care. But the process of adopting a child from another country can be very daunting and very expensive. And because of this, families have historically opted to adopt from countries with fewer regulations, countries like Uganda, for instance. But this has unfortunately also led to corrupt practices and more and more cases of children being unlawfully

separated from their families. And in some of the worst cases, actually sold to American families, causing a major adoption crisis. So to just really dive into situations like what we're seeing in Uganda, I had the fantastic Maria Sosyan from the team just jump into it. An investigation conducted by the Investigative Fund and the Nation Institute revealed the grim reality of inter-country adoptions, specifically as it pertains to those between the U.S. and

Uganda. American agencies partner with orphanages and children's homes to facilitate adoptions of children who can no longer be supported by their families. Unfortunately, weak institutions and inadequate reforms in some countries have led to the facilitation of hundreds, possibly thousands, of fraudulent inter-country adoptions. Wrongful or fraudulent adoptions take place when a person, agency, or institute attempts to either illegally adopt a child or illegally give a child up for adoption. In other words, information is either undisclosed or withheld, and chances are the adoption wouldn't have taken place had the adoptive parents been properly informed of important information. How does this happen? Well, according to the investigation, parents struggling to make ends meet find

themselves searching for better options for their children, but in many cases, education remains inaccessible. The nearest functioning school may be miles away or at times so expensive that parents find themselves working long hours and still unable to pay fees. Let's say you're a parent looking to provide your kids with opportunities and a good education. On any given Sunday, you attend Mass, and at the end of the service, a local clergyman makes a sales pitch to you. He offers you the hope of a proper education for your children and tells you he can secure funding to send them to boarding school. You believe him and accept his offer, not knowing that he's not a clergyman at all. He's a human trafficker. And this boarding school is really a children's home where your kids will be fraudulently declared orphans and eventually sold to unwitting American families. Families who have been told that the

child they're adopting was living under extreme circumstances and in desperate need of medical or financial help. Reportedly, the entire process usually happens within a year to 18 months. By the time parents begin to inquire and raise concern, their children are no longer in Uganda, and they are no longer theirs. Take the example of Tabitha Abo, a Ugandan mother who lost custody of her two sons. In 2013, an American family adopted her eldest son, Michael, through a U.S.-based adoption agency. Like most rural people in Uganda, Abo lacks the ability to read

or write. She is poor and can't afford a lawyer. She says that during custody hearings, she often couldn't understand what was being said because court proceedings in Kampala's high court are typically conducted in English, but she does not speak. When Michael was adopted, Abo was under the impression that he was being sponsored until the age of 18 while he studied. She believed that he would be returned home at least every four years. Do you know why? Because he was a young man.

He was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man who was a young man. But this was not the case. Soon after learning that Abo was pregnant with another child, the same American family filed to adopt that child too. During her pregnancy, they offered Abo financial support for her medical needs and expenses. They sent her money for treatment and baby supplies, and even paid for her to stay at a facility when the baby was born.

According to her, the situation was confusing. She didn't know they were making preparations to adopt Solomon, her newborn son. After all, at that time, she was still under the impression that Michael was merely away studying. When Solomon was five months old, his prospective parents gathered all the necessary documents to finalize the adoption and quickly processed his visa. Solomon was placed in an orphanage for the duration of the court proceedings, but the paperwork at this point showed signs of unlawful practices. For one, the application to foster Solomon was not signed by Abo, but instead by a Ugandan social worker, and not one from her own district. Second, the orphanage where Solomon was being kept was not a legally registered orphanage. At the third hearing, Abo was recorded to have authorized the adoption, and after the fourth hearing in 2017, Solomon's adoption was finalized.

During these hearings, however, Abo claims she didn't consent to Solomon's adoption, while the child's adoptive parents claim she did. She argues that she believed she was consenting to financial support when signing documents, and never intended to surrender her rights as a mother. Uganda is not a member of the Hague Convention, which makes the process of adopting from Uganda rather unique and unclear. The Hague Convention on the Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inner Country Adoption is an international agreement

meant to safeguard inner country adoptions. According to the U.S. Department of State's website, the convention strives to prevent the abduction, sale, or trafficking of children. It also works to ensure that inner country adoptions are in the best interest of children, while recognizing adoption as a means of offering a child a permanent home. According to the convention, inter-country adoption may take place when, 1. The child has been deemed eligible for adoption by the child's country of origin,

and 2. Due consideration has been given to finding an adoption placement for the child in its country of origin. The United States signed the convention in 1994. Critics of the Hague Convention complained that it makes international adoption more expensive and overly bureaucratic, which means fewer children are adopted. If parents want a child fast and without strings attached, they'll most likely opt for a non-Hague country. Why? These countries allow for quick, easy, and oftentimes illegal adoption, funneling poor children from developing nations to wealthier families in first world countries. In Uganda's case, you have white middle-class families in the U.S. paying anywhere from $30,000 to $40,000 for one child.

Some argue that the problem lies not within the Ugandan adoption market, but within the U.S. adoption market, where money plays a huge role running the risk of turning child adoption into a booming business. The service was to find children that can be adopted. They wanted everything fast, fast. Because if you get a child today, spends in a home like two months, three months, is adopted, that means they are spending less on this child.

But if a child comes, stays for a year, it's much expense. Adoption agencies in the U.S. are regulated by the Council on Accreditation, a nonprofit based out of New York and overseen by the State Department. The COA accredits 2,200 programs and organizations. In order to be accredited, organizations need to prove that they are financially stable and can adequately evaluate parents who are looking to adopt. In the past, the COA has acknowledged the concern about inter-country adoption, especially as it pertains to U.S. agencies working with partners in places like Uganda. But according to the COA's CEO, Richard Klarberg, the COA doesn't have the resources or the capacity

to investigate adoption fraud. Going about identifying whether that has happened is not something that we are trained to do, that we have the resources to do, or actually that we have in any way the capacity to do. The COA does, however, have the power to fully terminate or suspend an agency's accreditation if they come across fraud or wrongdoing. Over the last 12 years, the COA has canceled accreditation of 11 agencies and suspended 17. We spoke to Lisa Prather, vice president of operations at Nightlight Christian Adoptions, a full-service COA and Hague-accredited child placement agency. 2015, I believe, is when we started doing investigations, a third-party investigation. Prior to that, we were depending upon, say,

the orphanage director to do a background check and look for relatives and run ads and search for options for these children before they were placed for international adoption. And then we would have our attorney do a second investigation. Once we received the file, we'd have the attorney review the file, and then the attorney would do another investigation and provide feedback about what they found. But in 2015, we just saw a lot of changes in Uganda and the attorney themselves said, you know, we feel like us doing the investigation is probably a conflict of interest. So we moved to a third party investigation and started paying a private investigator to do a thorough investigation of each child. We have had, you know, situations where we have found that people

were not being honest. We've had situations where the orphanage director or, you know, caregiver of the child didn't explain to the family truly what adoption meant. And so then when the investigator goes out and really explains, they say, oh, no, that's not what I want. I thought that you were just going to sponsor my child and they were going to go to America and live there and get an education. The majority of adoptions now begin by gaining legal guardianship of a child in Uganda and returning with the child to the U.S. to finalize the adoption. This new process is thanks to a Ugandan law passed in 2016 known as the Children Amendment Act. Among other things, this new law requires that families stay in Uganda for 12 consecutive months before being able to proceed with the adoption process. They must foster the child for at least one year under

the supervision of a probation and social welfare officer. It also stipulates that the applicant cannot make any payment in consideration of the guardianship or adoption. Children with special needs are an exception, though. If medical care is needed abroad, then adoptive parents may petition the high court. Prior to 2016, the Ugandan Children's Act required that families adopting would have to live in Uganda for three years. But there was nothing addressing guardianship at all in the Children's Act. There was a law in Uganda that would allow guardianship. This was how

international families were able to adopt without having to live in Uganda for three years. So it was basically a loophole in the law. So families were able to do a guardianship and the U.S. would approve that child's visa. The family would come back to the U.S. would approve that child's visa. The family would come back to the U.S. and then they would adopt that child. There was a lot of discussion back and forth between the U.S. embassy and with the courts in Uganda before those decisions were made. The court was aware that the children they intended for the children to go to the U.S. and be adopted. In 2016, when they passed the new law that required families to live in Uganda for a year, they eliminated the guardianship option. So they basically closed up that loophole.

So at that point, families had to either live in Uganda for a year and foster the child or the court has the right to make an exception. So there's still a loophole there in a way because it's not clear under what circumstances the court can make the exception. So, you know, there's still the court still has the. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer.

So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus, enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. Option. Even with this new law in place, though, it's still easy for corrupt officials to declare kids paper orphans, even if they have a living family. Paper orphans are children who are trafficked into orphanages under false pretenses. When the law was passed in 2016, it was really unclear what the future would look like.

And so there were some agencies who were consulting with attorneys in Uganda and telling families that they could still proceed and get an exception. We said, no, we're not going to. We're going to close the adoption or close the guardianship program and because that's no longer allowed. And then we're going to tell families that they need to live in Uganda for 12 months. We are not going to assume that we know what an exception would be. They also stopped accepting any new applications in response to the new law. According to Al Jazeera, since 1999, approximately 1,600 Ugandans have been adopted by American families. It is unclear how many were adopted against their families' wishes.

You know, we considered closing the Ugandan program altogether just because of the struggle with corruption. And it was really my goal when we stopped doing guardianships, you know, when the law changed, I said, you know, I think we're just going to cut back and only work with this one organization. Because that's the only organization I trust. The only way that I can be really confident that these children are eligible for adoption. As time has passed and I've been able to see that there are other ways to ensure that, I have expanded that a little bit. And we do have one other organization that we

started partnering with this year that only cares for special needs children. Families are now being encouraged not to adopt from Uganda for fear of deception. This year alone, and I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, but like I said, we get called every day where somebody says, I've been sponsoring this child or I've met this child or, you know, had some situation

and we just believe that this child is eligible for adoption. The first thing that we do is we tell families first shift pay for an investigation. We charge them an application fee and we charge them for the investigation. We send our third party investigator out and he reports back to us what he finds. And the majority of those cases this year have reported back that that child is not eligible for adoption.

And those families are disappointed, but they're also relieved because they have the truth. And nobody really wants to adopt someone's child if that child isn't truly an orphan. Nobody wants that. Countries like Kenya banned international adoption altogether in 2014 because studies cited Kenya as a source, transit, and destination country in human trafficking. Some families who have adopted children from Uganda are understanding once they learn of the circumstances under which the process was facilitated. They plan visits to Uganda with their families in order to help re-establish bonds. In some cases, adoptive parents are even willing to return children to their birth parents or to a children's home in their home country. But even then, some kids were taken away at such a young age that

they oftentimes don't recognize their own parents. As for Solomon, although Tabitha Abo is no longer his legal parent, he still hasn't left Uganda. A member of Uganda's child welfare division said that the government took custody of him after Apo filed a complaint. At the moment, government officials are investigating his case to determine whether the adoption might be reversed because of fraud or misrepresentation. I recognize that there has definitely been some agencies that have done some things that were unethical. And there has been corruption in adoption in Uganda. I've seen that firsthand. And we have done everything that we can to safeguard our adoptions. And we've done that because I don't think you should throw out the baby with the bathwater.

I think that it is possible to do ethical adoptions, but you have to do them very slowly. You have to do them very methodically. You have to have safeguards in place. And there are children who need homes. So that's why we have continued to work in Uganda, despite the difficulty. Solomon's story is not unique, nor is it the only one. In the last year alone, more and more reports have surfaced citing unethical practices on behalf of U.S. adoption agencies. Not all adoptions are created equal, though, and the question still remains, who's really to blame here? And are ethical adoptions actually feasible? According to Lisa Prather, they are. It's worth noting that all of

the coverage around this developing story either didn't include commentary from US agencies or was found to be very limited in its scope. Because of this, we thought it was important to include Lisa's assessment and make note of all the key players potentially involved. Now, unfortunately, there is no one solution to the adoption crisis in Uganda. And more often than not, you have parents like Tabitha Abbo

who find themselves in situations where they're told that the biological children are no longer theirs. That said, we're at that point of the video where I'd like to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts on this story? Who do you think plays the biggest role in facilitating these fraudulent adoptions? Who bears the most responsibility?

You know, is it the American agencies not doing their due diligence? Is it the individuals who run the orphanages and children's homes in Uganda? Or even is it the middlemen, the ones taking the money and facilitating the process overall? And then of course, one of the big questions that people ask with this is,

do you think that the adoptive parents, especially in cases like the one highlighted in this video, do you feel that they have a moral obligation to return the child if they learn that he or she was wrongfully adopted? But on those many different notes, that's where I'm going to end today's show. With that said, thank you for watching.

If you like this video, let us know by hitting that like button. Also, if you're new here, you want more of these morning news videos, the regular Philip DeFranco shows, hit that subscribe button. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. I love your faces, and I'll see you later today on the brand new Philip DeFranco show.