EXCLUSIVE: International Adoptions Banned Only In Theory, Italians Adopt Romanian Children

The two children, H.A. and S.F., are one years and seven months old and three years old respectively, and Romanian authorities received in March the notifications regarding their adoption in Italy, although for H.A. authorities had started repatriation procedures in 2008. in the second case, Romanian authorities had no idea the child existed until they received the notification on its adoption.

State secretary with the Romanian Authority for Children’s Rights (ANPDC), Ileana Savu, told MEDIAFAX Wednesday that the authority was notified on the case of H.A. by the consular office of the Romanian embassy in Rome, in a letter of February 1, 2008.

The child, born on December 5, 2007 in Rome, was in a protection center in the city a the time of the notice, after it had been abandoned by its mother.

ANPDC required a social inquiry at the mother’s address on February 7, 2008, where authorities identified the child’s maternal grandmother, who agreed to have the child repatriated and said she would raise it. The child’s mother said she went to the Italian care center to take the child back, but Italian social workers denied her claim saying she was underage, Savu said.

Moreover, child protection authorities in Botosani, northeastern Romania, issued a series of documents regarding the child’s protection upon returning to Romania, documents that were sent to Italian authorities on February 27, 2008, to back the repatriation request.

The Romanian embassy in Rome informed Romanian child protection authorities that an Italian court ruled the child was to stay in Italy. Although Romanian authorities reiterated the repatriation request, the embassy informed that the court ordered the start of adoption procedures, rejecting the repatriation request.

The second Romanian child is a three year-old girl, born in Italy on June 30, 2006, whose Romanian parents neglected her.

In March 2009, the Romanian embassy in Rome was notified that a court issued a decision for the girl’s adoption. Although additional information was requested, the girl ended up in an Italian care center and Italian authorities didn’t give any further details about her case, Savu said.

According to the Romanian Authority for Children’s Rights, the accord on the repatriation of Romanian minors unattended in Italy became effective in November 2008. In the interval January-July 2009, Romania filed 203 notices and only 56 minors were repatriated.

State secretary with the Romanian Office for Adoption, Bogdan Panait, said the institution hasn’t received any information on the adoption of the two children, but said he knows this is not the first slip-up of this kind on the part of Italian authorities.

"I have no information regarding the adoption of children in Italy this year. I am meeting with an Italian delegation this week and I will bring this up, because it is an older practice,” Panait said.

Following international accusations of corruption and abuse within Romania’s child protection system, authorities put a ban on international adoptions in 2001.

In January 2005, Law 273/2004 regulating adoption allowed the resuming of international adoptions, but only allows Romanian children to be adopted by their relatives abroad.