Orphanages will play pivotal role in move to
tackle trafficking of children
BEIJING - The government is toughening rules
to tackle the scourge of child trafficking, including making orphanages the
only institutions that can offer abandoned children for adoption, an official
said.
"Illegal adoption", whereby adults
can adopt without official registration, will also be targeted.
Enhancing the role of orphanages in the
adoption process will better protect the rights of children and curb
trafficking, Ji Gang, director of the domestic adoption department of the China
Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA), told China Daily.
The draft of the rules, due to be introduced
by the end of the year, will force adults to go through official channels and
reduce the demand for abducted children, he added.
The Registration Measures for the Adoption of
Children by Chinese Citizens has been in place since 1999. It stipulates that a
citizen can adopt a child from sources other than an orphanage if the applicant
does not have any offspring and meets certain requirements in terms of age,
health and financial status.
As a result, children have been adopted
through various routes, such as hospitals and friends.
This was a system that allowed certain people
to profit from adoptions.
According to the revised rules, to be worked
out jointly by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and CCCWA, all abandoned infants
and young children should be sent to orphanages for adoption, Ji said.
Once the new rules take effect, children
adopted without the input of an orphanage will not be allowed to have a hukou,
or household registration permit, Ji added.
On top of this, parents of illegally adopted
children will not be recognized as legal guardians, Ji said. “Therefore,
illegally adopted children do not have any legal responsibility to take care of
their parents when they get old”.
But tackling unregistered adoptions will not
be easy as the practice is deep-rooted, especially in poor areas, Ji admitted.
Illegal adoption is prevalent in rural and economically
less-developed areas, Ji said, citing a study conducted by CCCWA in 11 regions
and municipalities.
The study shows that from 1992 to 2005, about
19,800 children were adopted illegally in Chongqing municipality, while the
number of legal adoptions registered with the local civil affairs departments
was only 5,100.
The situation is better in big cities such as
Beijing and Shanghai, where people “are better educated and have a stronger
sense of the law”, Ji said.
Chen Shiqu, who heads the anti-trafficking
office at the Ministry of Public Security, said that most of the abducted
children were sold to childless couples to carry on the family line and
guarantee security in old age.
Only a small portion of trafficked children
were forced to beg on the streets, Chen said.
Official statistics show that the police have
rescued 14,613 abducted children throughout the country since 2009.
Zhang Wenjuan, deputy director of Beijing
Children’s Legal Aid and Research Center, said that the government should work
on establishing a sound social welfare system to tackle the problem of
abandoned children and “illegal adoption”.
Some parents abandon their children due to
poverty or because they cannot afford expensive medical fees if their children
suffer from severe diseases. These situations can be avoided if the government
provides more financial help and affordable health services, Zhang stressed.
Meanwhile, the government should try to
improve the pension system, especially in China’s vast rural regions, to
prevent people from buying children as a guarantee for old age, said Ge
Daoshun, an expert on social policy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Zhang Yan contributed to this story.
China Daily
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