Ethiopian orphanage used ‘child harvesters’ to find children
Ray Weaver
April 12, 2013 - 15:05
DanAdopt’s closed orphanage used an intermediary to convince families to put
their children up for adoption
Adoptions from the the Enat Alem orphanage in Ethiopia were recently
<
http://cphpost.dk/international/social-minister-stops-adoptions-ethiopian-o
rphanage> halted by the social and integration minister, Karen Hækkerup
(Socialdemokraterne), based on reports of children being deprived of food,
basic care and medical treatment at the facility. Now new reports have
surfaced that the home used ‘child harvesters’ to lure local families into
putting their children up for adoption at Enat Alem in violation of the
Hague Conventions.
A local man, Gimma Kebele, told the DR News programme '21 Søndag' that he
worked at Enat Alem and that, along with his duties as a night watchman, he
went around local villages visiting families in an attempt to persuade them
to put their children up for adoption. Kebele says that he has been involved
in 145 adoptions at Enat Alem.
According to local authorities, Kebele received a reward for collecting the
children that was quite lucrative by Ethiopian standards. He was allegedly
paid between 75 and 110 Danish kroner for each child he brought to the home.
By comparison, his monthly salary as a guard at the orphanage was about 150
kroner.
A local official said that many parents who were seeking a chance at a
better life for their children never fully understood that they would most
likely never see them again after agreeing to an adoption through Enat Alem.
“They did not know what the separation meant because they were pressured and
tricked and promised many things,” the official told '21 Søndag'. Other
sources have said that biological parents were told that their children
would receive excellent educations and then be sent back to Ethiopia to help
their biological families.
"I am completely shaken," Steen Andersen, the general secretary of UNICEF
Denmark, told '21 Søndag'. "This is unethical and illegal. These children
are not orphans, and many of these women belive that their children are
going on an extended holiday in Denmark."
Records show that 21 children have come to Denmark from Enat Alem via
DanAdopt since 2009. The agency said that it had no knowledge that the
orphanage used child harvesters. This past weekend, DanAdopt sent a letter
to the parents on the waiting list for Ethiopian children in Denmark, saying
that the moratorium on adoptions from Ethiopia was "temporary". The letter
goes on to say that there have been no problems with Danish adoptions from
Ethiopia since 2009 and that they had not been allowed to see '21 Søndag'
before it was aired in order to verify its claims.
Kebele denied that he was paid to find children for adoption and said that
he was simply doing outreach work in order to assist poor families.
Soliciting children for adoption for profit is punishable by imprisonment in
Ethiopia.
The letter from DanAdopt to parents waiting for a child from Ethiopia is
<
http://www.danadopt.dk/om-danadopt/nyheder/etiopien/danadopts-brev-til-fami
lierne-paa-ventelisten-i-forbindelse-med-det-midlertidige-stop-for-etiopien.
aspx> here, in Danish.
<
http://cphpost.dk/field-collection/field-image-and-desc-coll/27927>
This woman said she had no idea her children would never return when she
allowed them to be adopted in Denmark (Screen Shot: DR/ 21 Søndag)
Received on Sat Apr 13 2013 - 11:12:21 EDT
