Evidence of trafficking of Indian children for illegal adoption emerges
Arun Dohl is an activist with the organisation: Against Child Trafficking (ACT), and has been fighting against the corruption and trafficking of children in intercountry adoption for a number of years. He has been working on behalf of an Indian couple, mentioned in the above article : Salya and Fatima, who had their child kidnapped and subsequently adopted here in Australia. The author is Rory Callahan, an investigative journalist, who has written a number of well researched articles on the subject. See Callinan, R. (2008). ‘Stolen Children. Indian infants snatched from their parents have been unwittingly adopted by couples across Australia’ Time Magazine Sept 1, 2008 p. 44.
I mentioned the case in my article : Parallels between Forced and Intercountry Adoptions in Australia. An excerpt follows:”
“Fatima, mother of one of the stolen children now living in Australia: “I thought someone had taken her for her kidneys… Many, many places I looked. My husband travelled everywhere looking. I was all the time crying for my daughter”. Fatima’s husband stated that his wife was: “half mad with grief.”
Fatima hopes to be one day reunited with her daughter, but this may never be. Why? Because intercountry adoption law has been formulated by Westerners to benefit and protect them. It is based on a Western model of family. The notion of the transfer of a child, to be solely the property of one set of parents, in a nuclear family, is an alien concept imposed on more communally based societies. The term ‘in the best interests of the child’ will be the weapon used to thwart any attempt by families to reclaim their stolen children.”
Here we are 6 years later and Fatima still waits to meet with her daughter. One must ask why won’t the adoptive parents let Fatima’s kidnapped daughter meet with her? This is truly a heartbreaking story. And one that is very likely to be repeated many times over as Tony Abbott wants to “ramp up” adoptions to make it easier and faster to adopt.
