Foreigners banned from adopting children

By Yasiin Mugerwa & Simon Peter Emwamu
Posted 


Friday, March 4  

2016 at 

02:00

In Summary

Move. MPs passed the The Children (Amendment) Bill, 2015 with a clause stopping foreigners from accessing guardianship of Ugandan children

Parliament on Wednesday passed a new law on legal guardianship of children, in a radical measure targeting gangs of criminals who collude with foreigners to trade in children under the guise of philanthropic adoption.

Parliament chaired by Speaker Rebecca Kadaga passed the The Children (Amendment) Bill, 2015 with a clause stopping foreigners from accessing guardianship of Ugandan children. The proposal to restrict legal guardianship to Ugandans was made by Serere MP Alice Alaso.

The passing of the legislation follows a push for a watertight law to protect Uganda’s children being exposed to abuse and exploitation by those who take advantage of the gaps in the parent law.

Ayivu County MP Bernard Atiku, the architect of the private members Bill, argued that a boom in the international adoption industry had led to the boom of orphanage homes. The MP said here, vulnerable children were being abused with impunity.

Mr Atiku explained that thousands of children have left the country through unclear circumstances.

Citing tracking of children taken for guardianship by foreigners, an insidious problem in the country, the Ayivu County MP and other members called for an outright ban on foreigners.

“It’s the responsibility of the nation to take care of its children,” Mr Atiku said, adding: “We should not let foreigners come here [Uganda] and take our children away.”

Gender minister Muruli Mukasa acknowledged that the guardianship role had been misused and that the abuse had made it hard for government to track the children who are taken out of the country on legal guardianship arrangements.

“Guardianship has been used on so many fronts by foreigners as a shortcut to adoption,” Mr Muruli Mukasa said, adding that “the people who are granted guardianship change the status to adoption when they reach their respective countries.”

Uganda is home to about three million orphans, about 1.2 million of whom are said to have lost their parents to HIV/Aids. In his recent report to Parliament, the Auditor General, Mr John Muwanga, said there was no system for government to track adoptions, leaving children at risk of being trafficked.

The ministry of Gender officials told Daily Monitor that they have now embarked on monitoring of about 500 foster homes in the country and closing illegal ones in an attempt to stop the abuse of children.

West Budama North MP Fox Odoi tried to defend open legal guardianship of children. “There are so many situations where many of these children are totally abandoned by their families with no chance of being helped by a national and their only ray of hope is a foreigner who is willing to take them on,” Mr Odoi said.

Police intercept 22 children

Police in Soroti District have intercepted 22 children who they suspect were being trafficked to Iganga District.