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Child laundering is a scheme whereby intercountry adoptions are effected by illegal and fraudulent means. It may involve the trafficking of children and the acquisition of children through payment, deceit and/or force. The children may then be held in sham orphanages while formal international adoption processes are used to send the children to adoptive parents in another country. Child laundering rings are often large with multiple hierarchies of people motivated by the large profits from the black markets of intercountry adoptions. With
Westerners The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.
willing to spend thousands of dollars to adopt a child, there is enough monetary incentive to extend the laundering ring from the middle classes to societies' more affluent groups. These "baby broker" families subsequently forge a new identity for the laundered child, "validating" the child's legal status as an orphan and ensuring the scheme will not be uncovered.Smolin, David 2010 Child laundering is highly controversial; while many argue that these children are being treated as a commodity and stripped of family contact, others argue that, ultimately, the children will live in a more affluent
environment Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, all living and non-living things occurring naturally * Biophysical environment, the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism or ...
and have more opportunities as a result of this adoption.Smolin, David 2005


Hierarchy of involvement

There is a complex hierarchy within the child laundering business which includes governments,
orphanage An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families. The parents may be deceased, absent, or a ...
s, intermediaries, birth families, and adoptive families. The people who oversee these child laundering rings are estimated to make $2,000 to $20,000 per overseas adoption.Smolin, David 2005 Therefore, it is advantageous for these individuals to have the necessary language and social skills in order to work closely with Western adoption agencies. Intermediaries are crucial in acquiring the child, because their job is to locate extremely impoverished parents who may be willing to sell their children out of necessity. Often, the people involved in recruiting and managing the adoption ring are local middle or upper class citizens, and they often have a negative view of the very poor. Therefore, recruiters can rationalize taking these children from the
biological Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary in ...
family on the grounds that the child will be better reared in the West. Many members of foreign governments are
bribe Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corru ...
d to hasten these illegitimate adoptions, and also to ignore the illegality of these
criminal organization Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...
s.


Process of illegal adoptions

Illegal child laundering adoptions involve a hierarchy of people as described above, who manipulate the legal adoptions system in order to profit. This process begins when recruiters gain physical custody of children through various means. Then, children are often taken to orphanages which arrange the adoptions, where they are sometimes severely mistreated. Finally, after a
forgery Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbid ...
of documents to falsify a child's identity, the child is sent to the West to be united with his or her adoptive parents.


Child acquisition

There are several different ways by which "orphans" are acquired and later sold within the adoption system. Parent nations are almost always poor, and in most places, these countries also have a system where impoverished parents can temporarily care for their children by placing them in orphanages, hostels or schools. This community provides poor children with
care Care may refer to: Organizations and projects * CARE (New Zealand), Citizens Association for Racial Equality, a former New Zealand organisation * CARE (relief agency), "Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere", an international aid and ...
, housing, and food until the family is in a better economic situation. In these cases, parents may have no intention to sever their parental rights or abandon their children. However, these institutions may take advantage of the child and family's economic and social vulnerability to illegally profit by making the child available to overseas adoption markets, netting orphanage owners thousands of dollars per child. Another instance where children are wrongly deemed orphans is when said children become lost or separated from their families. Although institutions are required by law to make an effort to locate the family, there is virtually no way to assess whether they actually do this. If these initial efforts to locate the family fail, or are declared as failures, the institution then has the opportunity to capitalize on this by putting the child up for adoption. Another way in which "orphans" are acquired is through an outright purchase of the child. The recruiters for these adoption rings seek out poor, pregnant women and offer to pay for their child. These parents may be led to believe that they will be kept in contact with the child and receive
financial support An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Typ ...
from the adoptive parents. Likewise, they may be told that they will eventually be able to migrate to live with their child once he/she is grown, presumably in a more economically developed nation. Through these methods and more, recruiters lead the birth parents to believe they are providing a better future for their child.


Treatment of children in orphanages

Investigations by United States
ICE Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...
agents have indicated that the conditions in many foreign orphanages involved in child laundering are inhumane. One investigation found that the children were unwashed and unclothed, unprotected from malaria, and lying in rusty cribs (Smolin: Child Laundering 139). Additionally, there was no experienced nurse caring for the children, and the investigator termed it a "stash house". With the thousands of dollars that these orphanages receive for each adoption, the conditions children are kept in could be vastly improved for just a fraction of the
racketeer Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and ...
s' profits.


Intercountry adoption

The United States is responsible for most intercountry adoptions in the world: 20,000 out of the total 30,000 total orphans adopted annually. The Westerners who adopt from developing nations pay thousands of dollars to process the paperwork of one child. This provides a lucrative incentive for those involved in the process.Petit, Juan Miguel 2003 In many cases, the prospective adoptive parents are motivated by a sense of
altruism Altruism is the principle and moral practice of concern for the welfare and/or happiness of other human beings or animals, resulting in a quality of life both material and spiritual. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core as ...
, coupled with their desire to overcome infertility and fulfill the Western standard of the nuclear family.Dudley, William 2004 These adoptive parents create a demand for healthy infants that will be able to assimilate into their new home and cut off ties to their birthplace and culture of origin.Minh, Kevin 2004 Prospective adoptive parents are placed with the "orphans" through adoption agencies,
brokers A broker is a person or firm who arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neither role should be confu ...
, or advertising agencies online.Masnerus, Laura 1998 Due to the fact that most of the children adopted overseas are so young, they will not have any memories of their birth families. Without a
paper trail An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon.” Auditing ...
and without any input from the child, it makes it near impossible to detect whether a child is truly an orphan.


International legislation


Hague Adoption Convention

The
Hague Adoption Convention The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (or Hague Adoption Convention) is an international convention dealing with international adoption, child laundering, and child trafficking in ...
has been widely adopted to regulate international adoptions. The Convention seeks to establish certain rules for international adoptions to combat child laundering. It seeks to establish an indirect solution to abuses.Mezmur, Benyam 2010 However, the Hague Convention fails to require any effort to preserve the family before turning to international adoption, and therefore the Convention mostly represents an anti-trafficking
treaty A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal pers ...
. In 2000, the U.S. Congress enacted the ''Intercountry Adoption Act'' in order to implement the ideas of the Hague Convention. However, this Act is limited in the fact that the United States cannot enforce any measures against the sending country if
corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
in the adoption process is discovered.Meier, Patricia 2008


Stance of the United States

The
US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nat ...
does not consider child laundering to be a form of human trafficking, as it is a non-exploitative result. Furthermore, it is sometimes seen as a humanitarian act, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the acquisition of the child. The adoption agencies in the West are operating within a completely legitimate sphere, and have no way of knowing whether they are a party to this
human rights violation Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...
. Therefore, the United States does not have the jurisdiction to prosecute these agencies working in the
developing countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agree ...
. However, the Department of State does caution that international adoption should be considered when it is in the best interest of a child and domestic adoption options have already been evaluated.


Case studies

Child laundering is a global issue, and there have been highly publicized cases in the past decade. Guatemala, China, and
Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand ...
highly exemplify the problems associated with intercountry adoptions.


Guatemala

From 1999–2011 there have been: * 29,731 adoptions of Guatemalan children * 15,691 females and 14,040 males * 20,829 children aged under 1 year * 6,557 children aged 1–2 years * 2,749 children aged 3–18 yearsU.S Dept. of State 2011 Before Guatemala's adoption of the Hague Convention in 2007, child laundering was a widespread and notorious issue in Guatemala. The recruiters are called ''jaladoras'' or ''buscadoras'', and these individuals often work with
medical Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care practic ...
personnel who give the recruiters information about where vulnerable women can be located. For every child procured, the buscadora earns anywhere from $5,000 to $8,000. Some of the methods included women being told their baby did not survive childbirth, or the outright purchase of a child.Rotabi and Bunkers 2008 These women never received much in compensation for their child, as most of the bribes went to the "baby brokers" who process most of the paperwork in the adoption process.Carroll, Rory 2007 Since signing of the Hague Convention, new laws were passed by Guatemala to create new standards for the adoptions process. All adoption agencies have to be accredited and be accountable for their actions, as well as keep detailed and accurate financial records. Additionally, foster care now has much more accountability to the oversight of the Secretaria de Binestar Social (SBS). The
Central Authority A Central Authority is an agency or organization that is designated to play a key facilitating role in the implementation and operation of an international treaty in public and private international law. Prior to the Hague Evidence Convention a ...
(CA) was also established in order to ensure Guatemala's compliance with Hague Convention rules; children who have been legally approved for adoptions (by a judge) are matched with a prospective adoptive family by a team made up of a CA social worker and a psychologist. Following the restructuring of the Guatemalan government, Guatemala had ceased all foreign adoptions. In 2011 however, they announced that the government will be reviewing cases that had been in the works in 2007, but were not going to accept any more cases.Hoffman, Meredith 2011 At the present time, the United States is no longer processing adoptions from Guatemala, finally following suit with the number of other countries who placed moratoriums on Guatemalan adoptions.


China

From 1999–2011 there have been: * 66,630 adoptions of Chinese children * 60,431 females and 6,199 males * 25,605 children aged under 1 year * 33,566 children aged 1–2 years * 6,904 children aged 3–18 years China has experienced rampant child laundering in past decades, although now they are considered to be better off than most other sending countries. China reports about 10,000
kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/ asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the ...
s or abductions a year, although the true numbers are considered to be much higher. The official statistics are only based on those that are resolved, but it is very difficult to prove that a child has been kidnapped and then laundered.Custer, Charles 2011 Most of these children are from poor families in the
rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...
areas, and are taken as a result of the profits to be made from Western families. The Hunan scandal brought many of these issues to light, as orphanages sent intermediaries into rural areas to acquire children that are then moved around Hunan and given fraudulent documents in order to cover up the situation. Some argue that the issue of child laundering in China stems from the
one-child policy The term one-child policy () refers to a population planning initiative in China implemented between 1980 and 2015 to curb the country's population growth by restricting many families to a single child. That initiative was part of a much bro ...
, which created what was once a surplus of children to be adopted. However, since the demand for Chinese children has increased, institutions resort to methods like kidnapping in order to meet the demand and make a profit. This has been criticized on the grounds that that the system of international adoptions has created a system where poor families in China are abused in order to satiate the Western demand for children. Additionally, the ethnocentric justifications for these behaviors suggest that the child will have a better life without any connection to the biological family in the West, but some believe that the family should be preserved at all costs.Smith, Gary-Laura 2009


Cambodia

From 1999–2011 there have been: * 2,355 adoptions of Cambodian children * 1,369 females and 986 males * 1,370 children aged under 1 year * 677 children aged 1–2 years * 308 children aged 3–18 While most instances of intercountry adoption take two or more years to process, Cambodia has made a policy of expediting this process, often in as few as three months. Human rights activists consider Cambodia to be one of the countries with the most corruption involved in intercountry adoption. LICADHO, a Cambodian human rights group, has expressed that recruiters target poor families and women in their efforts to gain access to young children. Tactics such as the outright purchase of babies for as little as US$20 or deception of birthparents into relinquishing physical custody are systematically employed.Baker, Mark 2003 One particular case that gained media attention focused on a child laundering scheme run by an American woman named Lauryn Galindo. Galindo was prosecuted in the United States and convicted of "material misrepresentations as to the orphan status and identities" of infant adoptees over the period of 1997 through 2001. Galindo was sentenced to 18 months in prison, a fine, and required
community service Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation. Community service can be distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performed ...
.U.S Dept. Of Justice 2004 Currently, the United States, formerly one of the most common destinations for Cambodian adoptees, no longer processes adoptions from Cambodia.


Sri Lanka

In the period of 1970 to 2017, 11,000 babies from Sri Lanka were exported to
Western Countries The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.
, mainly those in Europe, including The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany. The Netherlands received the most children, including over 4,000 babies. Due to poverty and other social and cultural problems, many Sri Lankan families were forced to give up their children for adoption. Adoption agencies and certain notable people were identified as intermediaries in the adoption process. As the demand was high, many adoption agencies and the intermediates associated with them started "baby farms" where birth mothers and stolen infants were held. Many hospitals in Sri Lanka, especially those in districts like
Ratnapura District Ratnapura ( Sinhala: රත්නපුර දිස්ත්‍රික්කය, Tamil: இரத்தினபுரம் மாவட்டம்) is a district of Sri Lanka in the Sabaragamuwa Province. The gem-mining centre of Sri L ...
,
Galle District Galle ( si, ගාල්ල දිස්ත්‍රික්කය ''gālla distrikkaya''; ta, காலி மாவட்டம் ''Kāli māvattam'') is a district in Southern Province, Sri Lanka. It is one of 25 districts of Sri Lanka, th ...
, Kandy District,
Colombo District Colombo District ( si, කොළඹ දිස්ත්‍රික්කය ''kol̠am̆ba distrikkaya''; ta, கொழும்பு மாவட்டம் ''Koḻumpu Māvaṭṭam'') is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level ...
, Kegalle District and Kalutara District, either stole infants or coerced birth mothers into putting their children up for adoption. Government officials, tour guides, lawyers, and medical staff have all been implicated in unethical international adoption scandals. The babies were bought from mothers for around $30 by intermediates and sold to foreign couples for double the amount. After the year 2000, many babies who were adopted out of the country returned to Sri Lanka to meet their biological parents, to find that the documents used in their adoptions had been falsified and the biological parents they had hoped to meet were not real. In 2017, after the Dutch TV program Zembla revealed the adoption fraud, both the Dutch and Sri Lankan governments opened investigations, during which the Sri Lankan Government admitted that the baby farms were present. Many additional adoptees have since gone in front of the Court to ask for investigations about their adoptions.


See also

* Child-selling * Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction * Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption * International adoption *
List of international adoption scandals The following is a partial list, by year, of notable incidents or reports of international adoption scandals, adoption corruption, child harvesting, baby-stealing, legal violations in international adoption, or adoption agency corruption (see ch ...
* Trafficking of children


Notes


References

* Smolin, David. "Child Laundering and the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption: The Future and Past of Intercountry Adoption." 'University of Louisville Law Review.' Volume 48, No. 3, 2010,' p. 448, 452 * Smolin, David. "How the Intercountry Adoption System Legitimizes and Incentivizes the Practices of Buying, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Stealing Children." Cumberland Law Review. 2005. * Petit, Juan Miguel. "Rights of the Child." United Nations: Economic and Social Council Commission on Human Rights. 6 January 2003. * "Issues in Adoption Viewpoints." ed. William Dudley. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. 2004, p. 66 * Allen, Kevin Minh. "The Price We All Pay: Human Trafficking in International Adoption." Conducive Magazine: 6 October 2009, p. 10; "Issues in Adoption Viewpoints." ed. William Dudley. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. 2004, p. 70 *Mansnerus, Laura. "Market Puts Price Tags on the Priceless." New York Times. 26 October 1998, p. 2 *Mezmur, Benyam D. "'The Sins of the 'Saviors: Child Trafficking in the Context of Intercountry Adoption in Africa." Permanent Bureau. June 2010, p. 6 *Meier, Patricia J. and Xiaole Zhang. "Sold into Adoption: The Hunan Baby Trafficking Scandal Exposes Vulnerabilities in Chinese Adoptions to the United States." Cumberland Law Review, Vol. 39, No. 1. 25 Oct 2008 * US Department of State: Intercountry Adoption Statistics. http://adoption.state.gov/about_us/statistics.php * Rotabi, Karen Smith and Kelley Bunkers. "Intercountry Adoption Reform Based on the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption: An Update on Guatemala in 2008." * * Hoffman, Meredith. "Amid Allegations of Human Trafficking, Guatemala to Review Adoptions." New America Media. 24 August 2011 * Custer, Charles. "China's Missing Children." Foreign Policy Magazine. 10 October 2011 * Smith-Gary, Laura. "International Adoptions Fuel 'Family Planning' Kidnappings." Equal Writes, Feminism and Gender Issues at Princeton University. 5 October 2009 * Baker, Mark. "Babies for sale: no warranty." Sydney Morning Herald. 13 December 2003 * "Hawaii Resident Sentenced to 18 months in Prison in Cambodian Adoption Conspiracy." US Department of Justice, US Attorney, Western District of Washington. 19 November 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:Child Laundering Human trafficking Crimes against humanity Organized crime activity Crimes against children