Last week a delegation of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was expected to visit the US to discuss the problems of exit visa’s of Congolese children adopted by American parents. The issuance of those documents to get - depending on how one counts - 56 or 456 kids out of the country was stopped last year because of concerns not only about child trafficking and corruption in the DRC itself but also about the so called re-homing scandals in the US, a practice where adoptive parents abandon their adopted kids like pets and try to find new homes for them over the internet. The delegation cancelled its trip last minute citing not very convincing reasons. The real reason might have been an undiplomatic action by adoption advocate Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) who rallied 169 of the possible 535 signatures of members of congress for a petition, which didn’t reflect seriously on any of the Congolese concerns, didn’t offer any assistance and was just short of demanding the President of the DRCongo to issue the visa. This lack of empathy for those at the other side of the adoption equation – foreign authorities, local social workers, first parents and in the end also the children and adult adoptees - characterizes the American attitude to international adoption since its modern inception.
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