South Africa is becoming an international "baby supermarket", as foreigners rush to pay big money to adopt young, HIV-negative children. But worried social workers say the lack of legislative controls over inter-country adoptions means the system is wide open to abuse by modern-day "slave traders" - unscrupulous syndicates who adopt children for use in the sex trade or as cheap labour.
Black social workers in South Africa, who spoke to the Saturday Star, said they were concerned that in many cases, white social workers make the decision to allow black children to be adopted abroad.
This is because of a belief that black families are not willing to adopt - a suggestion that is not borne out by reality. The number of black couples wishing to do so has risen dramatically in the past seven years.
When section 18 (4)(f) of the current Childcare Act was declared unconstitutional a year ago, it opened up the way for foreigners not living in South Africa to adopt local children. However, this left a gap with no central authority to control the adoption process.
Pam Wilson, adoptions supervisor for the Johannesburg Child Welfare Society, says "Couples in developed Western countries are desperate to adopt, and word is spreading fast that they can get children in South Africa. We get regular approaches from foreign agencies, some of which want to set up what amounts to a trade market for children.
"While we do support inter-country adoptions, we are against it becoming a profit-driven industry and feel strongly that it should remain a child-centred service."
Wilson is worried about the screening for prospective adoptive parents who come from abroad.
"When a couple arrive here with a slip of paper saying they are fit to be adoptive parents, it's not easy to check how in-depth their screening was. There are a lot of well-meaning people out there, and we never want to limit options for any of our children who have been abandoned or who are in institutions.
"We just don't want to see our children treated like commodities, or leave space for criminals or profit-driven professionals to exploit gaps in the system."
Controversy was generated in the United States recently when a set of twins were adopted via the Internet by two different couples, one American and one from Britain. The babies ended up in foster care, with the two sets of adoptive parents waging war in court. It was later revealed that the agent facilitating the adoption was never registered.
After this incident, several other criminal adopting agencies, which sold children to the highest bidder, were exposed.
South Africa has signed the 1993 Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption - under which states are expected to enact laws that reflect the rights of children as laid out in the UN convention - but has not ratified it and therefore is not obliged to put the controls in place that the convention requires.
A search on the Internet by the Saturday Star revealed a website of a South African charity organisation that, even though it is not a registered adoption agency, has posted pictures, names and detailed personal histories of children in its care who have been abandoned.
One toddler is about to be sent to the United Arab Emirates and another has already left for the UK. The site's guestbook shows several entries from people from abroad.
While the intention of this organisation appears to be sincere, it is an indication of the urgent need for legal regulations to be put in place for intercountry adoptions.
It also raises the issue of regulating the use of the Internet in adoptions and whether posting intimate details of a child's abandonment and physical condition is in breach of accepted good practices for all adoptions.
Wilson raises a concern that the current policy decisions about sending predominantly black children out of the country are being made without the input of the black community.
Nana Mazibuko, an adoption social worker, believes that not enough work has been done to determine whether it is better for black children to be sent far away from their land of origin.
"What we have found is that adoptees often have a tremendous need to search for their roots," she says. "As much as we would like all our children in institutionalised care to be part of a family, there is not enough control in place to make sure that black children sent away will be adequately monitored.
"Issues of teaching them their cultural history or even dealing with differences in physical resemblance could impact hugely on these children. Intense campaigning needs to be done, particularly in the black community, for more adoptive parents to come forward."
Since 1994, Johannesburg Child Welfare has seen the number of black parents inquiring about adoption increase from 20 a year to 300.
Rieki van den Berg is managing director of SA Cares for Life, a registered adoption agency that has intensely investigated inter-country adoption. Her agency deals only with European countries that have ratified the Hague convention and she has personally visited the central adoption authority in each country she has agreements with.
"Inter-country is always a last resort, and we still do more local adoptions," she says. "We were amazed at the infrastructure and government support in these countries.
"Families are sent on a study tour of their adopted child's country of origin. We never deal directly with parents. The agencies we deal with do thorough screening, including police reports. The agencies also provide monthly support group meetings for families, and monthly follow-up visits are done for the first two years after the adoption. The families are also required to send us letters and photos in those two years."
Even though Van den Berg believes that written contracts she has entered into with foreign agencies are a good safeguard, she admits that the absence of legislative controls means that nothing is legally binding.
The department of social development says it shares the concern about the lack of safeguards in intercountry adoptions. The government is finalising the process for ratifying the Hague convention, and a central authority will be set up for the implementation of the convention.
The SA Law Commission has been instructed to expedite a review of all childcare legislation to ensure that issues such as intercountry adoptions are addressed.
The department has access to a reputable international network, which it is using as an interim control mechanism. - Staff Writer