• U.S.

ROMANIA: No Longer For Sale

1 minute read
TIME

Few black markets are as shady as international baby trafficking. Last week, in an attempt to quell a burgeoning underground trade in children, Romania announced a temporary halt to adoptions by foreigners until tighter rules are enacted.

Ever since the warehousing of 140,000 unwanted or sick children in squalid state orphanages was uncovered after the downfall of the Ceausescu regime in late 1989, Westerners have flocked to Romania to adopt thousands of abandoned babies. A growing number of unscrupulous prospective parents have reached beyond the orphanages, however, and scoured rural villages with the help of local “fixers,” searching for children to buy from easily tempted poor farmers.

Romanian adoption authorities now want to implement a tougher law, expected to be passed by parliament this week. The measure punishes baby selling with prison terms and requires that all foreign adoptions be approved by a special committee. Declared the Foreign Ministry: “The selling and buying of children has to stop.”

American officials agree. Tightening its own screening procedures, the U.S. is currently holding up permission for more than 50 American families to bring home their adopted Romanian children.

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