Americans want to be banned from adopting children in Latvia

Latvian politicians are discussing a ban on the adoption of children abroad, that is, in the United States. Now it is the only country that accepts Latvian orphans. Children are asked not to forbid them to go abroad, politicians respond with calls for patriotism and doubts about the reliability of American adoptive parents. Writes about it with the BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

“I still wonder why I was adopted and my sister wasn’t,” Elizabeth says. “It’s such survivor’s guilt.” I can go to college and drive a car, I live pretty well, I have a wonderful husband. And my sister had to fight for everything.”

13 years ago, Lisa was adopted by an American family, she moved to the United States, the family helped her go to college and get a degree in psychology. Elizabeth is now 25, she is married, lives in Texas, does data analytics. It is already more convenient for her to communicate in English.

Her sister Valeria remained in Latvia, after the orphanage she ended up in a temporary foster family, at the age of 18 she was left practically alone without financial support. She tried to establish contact with her biological mother and move to Ukraine with her, but failed.

She returned to Riga, lived with a friend, cleaned the house and looked after the children - in exchange for food and a roof over her head. Now Valeria is 22, she lives alone and is studying to become a social teacher, hopes to receive an allowance for good studies and works with children in a children's club.

“We grew up different people,” says Valeria. “Of course, in the USA there are more opportunities, including in the field of education, there is a more positive culture, there are more people, there are more financial opportunities, you can grow faster.”

Both Lisa and Valeria recorded video messages to Latvian politicians asking them not to prohibit the adoption of children abroad. The same appeals were recorded by dozens of “children of the system” – some from Latvia, some from the USA.

Opponents of foreign adoption say that the opinion of children should be taken into account, but it is in the interests of the child to grow up where he was born. The ban on foreign adoption is periodically discussed in the country's parliament, however, it came to specific legislative amendments only in 2020. Politicians are now proposing to ban overseas adoption pending the adoption of the new final rules.

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“I don’t think Latvia is worse than the USA. I think that we have a very good, strong country where you can live, grow and build a family. I don’t think that anywhere is better than here,” says member of the Latvian parliament and head of the specialized commission on social affairs Artus Kaimins. “We need to put the laws in order so that these children are not lured by some kind of candy, they say, look at how beautiful the palm trees are in Los Angeles.”

“The child should have a choice,” says Valeria. She does not regret staying in Latvia, but says that for a “child of the system” the most important thing is family. If there is an orphanage waiting for him in Latvia, and new parents in the USA, then he should be given the opportunity to leave.

"You are abandoned"

Valeria ended up in an orphanage at six months old; her sister Lisa was four years old. They have the same mother and different fathers. When, as Valeria says, their mother was taken to prison “through no fault of hers,” the children were left alone. After prison, my mother went to Ukraine, returned when Valeria was 14, and then disappeared again.

“In an orphanage you feel abandoned, and you are abandoned. Everyone at school has a mom and dad, but you don’t. And you always have to stand up for yourself, because older children, due to their own traumas, constantly try to offend you,” says Valeria.

Now, as a volunteer, she helps former “children of the system” find themselves in the adult world. He says that only a few become “respected people” - there is too much orphanage freedom and too many childhood traumas.

“Nobody tells children how to deal with their traumas in order to move on. They don't grow up, they always want to feel sorry for themselves, they have low self-esteem. It prevents you from achieving anything,” she says.

Valeria grew up in a so-called temporary family, which is not legally considered adopted. And at the age of 18 she found herself literally in an open field and had to provide for herself. Temporary foster families are an alternative to an orphanage or boarding school. In fact, this is a social service that adults provide to children when they take a child to their home, receiving a monthly allowance from the state for this.

Sometimes a child spends several months in such a family, sometimes many years. Some families take one child, some take several dozen. Such parents do not have parental rights; all important issues from the child’s health to his education are decided by local government.

According to the deputy of the Latvian parliament Boris Tsilevich, over the past few years, a whole lobby of temporary adoptive families has formed in Latvia, many support the ban on foreign adoption.

“Funding is gradually growing, support for foster families, organizations that are interested in deinstitutionalization (moving children from orphanages to temporary families), for many this has become a professional occupation, which, by the way, is very good,” he says.

A family receives 171 euros ($200) per month for one child, 222 euros ($260) for two, and 274 ($320) for three. According to the Ministry of Welfare, there are 1 children living in temporary foster families, all under 367 years old. Another 11 children live more or less permanently in orphanages, and most of them are over 574 years old.

Experts say that the older the child, the less chances he has of finding a family - real or temporary. For babies, as a rule, there are queues from local parents who are ready for real adoption. For those who are a little older, temporary adoptive parents come. But teenagers have very little chance of leaving the orphanage.

Mom will “come back someday”

“I became independent very quickly. From the first grade I went to school by bus through several districts. I remember that at the age of seven I went to my parents’ meeting myself - because there was no one else, there weren’t enough teachers in the orphanage to take care of everyone,” recalls Lisa (Elizabeth).

“I remember the last time I saw my birth mother, she said something like, 'I'll come back someday.' Dad sometimes visited, and then he simply promised to come and did not come, promised to call and did not call,” recalls Lisa.

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Mom did not come back, grandparents sometimes took them to their place, but did not want to take full responsibility.

They tried to adopt her several times. Things didn’t work out with one family because they allegedly broke something. “I said that this was not true, but who would believe me,” recalls Lisa.

Things didn't work out with another foster family because she accidentally hit her brother with her elbow. “They said they didn't trust me anymore. And before that they said that they wanted to leave me,” says Lisa.

So she remained in the orphanage until she was 12 years old. From this age, children can travel abroad.

“When I was given the chance, I grabbed it whole. I don’t know what would have happened to me if I had stayed in Latvia. I would like to say that I would have gone to school, but I don’t even know if I would have been alive,” says Lisa.

Lisa recalls that she went to the States “with rose-colored glasses”: she dreamed of new things, her own room and even her own car. And about a new family.

Everything turned out to be much more complicated, because in the USA there are “many problems” and “many homeless people.” And the relationships in the new family turned out to be very difficult. “I was a little adult, very independent. My adoptive mother said that I bossed my younger brothers around too much, and they “already have a mother.” But it was difficult for me to readjust, I was used to taking care of the younger ones and had no idea what it meant to be a daughter,” says Lisa.

The problems and disagreements eventually turned out to be so acute that now they do not communicate. But Lisa is still very grateful to her adoptive parents. “They gave me a chance to get into a good university, I was second in my class. They helped me become the person I became,” she says.

“I once told my sister that if I had stayed in Latvia until 18, I would have taken the first bus and never returned. This place is associated with childhood, and it was not the best childhood. A lot happened there that still torments me,” recalls Lisa.

No one needs teenagers

According to the parliamentary secretary of the Latvian Ministry of Welfare Chris Lipshans, over the past two and a half years, 161 Latvian children have been adopted abroad. In all cases, the host country was the United States.

According to the US State Department, 2019 children from Latvia arrived there in 38, and 2018 in 79. The majority are boys, almost half are over 12 years old.

Lawyer Kristine Lemantoviča says that it is almost impossible to find a family for teenage boys in Latvia. She has been working with international adoptions for about 14 years and claims that American parents are ready to accept, including children with addictions and problems with the law.

Kristine Lemantovich recalls that in her practice there were a variety of examples. For example, there was a case when an American family adopted a 17-year-old teenager, against whom several administrative cases were brought up in Latvia for fights and drugs. Local government officials described all this in a letter to a potential foster family. But the Americans still said they wanted to help.

“I asked why they need this? They say: why not? I have everything to help this child, I can afford it,” says Christine. “As a rule, these are older people who already have adult children and who have already experienced adoption.”

Already in the United States, shortly before his 18th birthday, the same teenager almost killed a man and received a suspended sentence. He refused to return to Latvia.

The interests of the child: where was born - live there?

“Latvia should not part with its citizens, making the excuse that we cannot provide something, so we give them up for adoption. This is contrary to the interests of the child,” says Latvian Ombudsman Juris Jansons.

According to him, if a child is a citizen of Latvia, then it is Latvia that must take care of the interests of this child. “It is in the best interests of the child to remain with the family in the country of origin,” adds Jansons.

It was he who provoked a parliamentary discussion about limiting foreign adoptions and the discussed amendments to the law. The result of the debate was a temporary ban on foreign adoption. A permanent law should be approved and adopted after the development of a new system for assessing the “best interests of the child.”

Jansons lists several reasons why restrictions are necessary. First, children who are already in temporary foster families end up abroad, which “traumatizes the child’s psyche” and is contrary to Latvian laws.

The Latvian Ministry of Health does not deny that they are aware of cases when children were returned from temporary families to orphanages in order to subsequently arrange for adoption abroad. True, the representative of the ministry Krishs Lipshans is not sure that this is contrary to the interests of the child.

“What exactly is in the best interests of the child? If he wants to live in a full-fledged family, but he does not have such an opportunity in Latvia, then the only option is to go abroad. Then from his point of view, being in an orphanage. where it was possible to officially adopt in the United States was better,” says Lipshance.

Opponents of adoptions also say that Latvia too often gives its children abroad. “The problem is in statistics, we are in 13th place in the world among countries that give up their children for adoption,” says MP Artus Kaimiņš.

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According to the information on the website of the US Department of State, Latvia was indeed in 13th place among 80 donor countries. In the first places are China and Ukraine. And if you count the donor country per capita, then Latvia would be even in sixth place. But in the global ranking, and not only in the USA, according to the report of the Hague Conference, in 2005-2018 Latvia was not even included in the TOP-20 donor countries. The first lines are occupied by China, Russia and Ethiopia.

Disappear from the radar

Another argument of opponents of foreign adoptions is that Latvia knows almost nothing about the fate of children taken abroad. The receiving party must inform the donor country about the child's condition for only the first two years.

“Are we going to assume that if nothing is known about them, then everything is fine with them?” - says Ombudsman Juris Jansons. Neither Jansons nor the Ministry of Health has information about specific violations. However, this does not reassure Latvian opponents of international adoption.

Jansons worries that the US allows re-adoption. This means that the foster family can transfer the adopted child to another foster family. And if by this time the primary adoptive parents do not have to submit reports to the Latvian authorities, then at home no one will know that the child's parents have changed. The US State Department acknowledged in its report that this practice threatens the safety of children.

Finally, the US has yet to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The document was signed back in 1989, and the United States took an active part in its development, but it never came to ratification. Latvia is confident that the absence of a convention casts doubt on the observance of children's rights.

“Is it acceptable that we freely send Latvian citizens to a country that does not recognize the convention, which in turn ensures the best interests of the child - education, free time, development, health. It seems to me that there are few countries that have not ratified this convention,” says Ombudsman Jansons.

The US State Department assures that the rights of children in the country are respected. “The legal system in the United States protects children at the federal and local levels. The United States, like Latvia, has ratified the Hague Convention for the Protection of Children and Cooperation in the Sphere of International Adoption, the US State Department tells the BBC Russian Service. “This ensures that international adoption is safe, predictable and open for all parties.”

Latvia has no political reasons to prohibit Americans from adopting their orphans - the countries have excellent relations, which are important for Latvia primarily in the context of NATO and the financial sector. Latvian politicians would not spoil them without reason.

“Latvia is a partner and ally of the United States in all aspects of our relationship,” says the US State Department.

The State Department respects Latvia's desire to protect the interests of the child, but expresses the hope that there will be no temporary or permanent ban on adoption.

“We believe that in cases where domestic adoption is not possible, international adoption should be available to children who risk spending their early years in various placements. Both the child and society have an interest in him becoming part of a permanent, loving family,” says the US State Department.

A principled dispute with a major ally

The issue of international adoption divided the deputies of the Latvian parliament approximately equally, the votes were also divided in the profile commission, different opinions from the Ministry of Welfare and the Ministry of Justice, different opinions from public organizations.

“The nationalists want their own “Dima Yakovlev law,” plus there is a lobby for foster families,” says deputy Boris Tsilevich. “On the other hand, there are also complaints against orphans’ courts regarding their decisions on adoption abroad.”

Whatever the outcome of the temporary ban, it will call into question the fate of dozens and even hundreds of orphanage children who were hoping to find new families in the United States. According to the Ministry of Welfare, more than a thousand Latvian orphans are looking for parents. Decisions have already been made regarding 135 children. No one knows what will happen to them until Latvian politicians decide on the “interests of children.”

“As a “child of the system,” it seems to me that this issue was raised because of the elections, so that politicians and their parties could be seen. I don’t think anyone thinks about patriotism. Yes, there are good and bad stories (about adoption in the USA), but why cut off all the good things?” - asks Valeria.

“People don’t understand this, but kids need mom and dad for a reason—kids need stability,” says Lisa. “And if you tell a child that we won’t give you a chance, you’re telling him that he’s worthless.” If you prohibit adoption altogether, then tell me what you give in return?”

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