New Vietnamese Adoption Case Raises Old Concerns

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 000559

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPT FOR CA/OCS/CI, L/CA AND CA/VO

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: CVIS CASC KOCI KFRD VM
SUBJECT: New Vietnamese Adoption Case Raises Old Concerns

REF: (A) HCMC 1507 (B) STATE 258720

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Summary
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1. (SBU) Post recently investigated the second case this
year in which GVN authorities approved the adoption of a
Vietnamese orphan by an Amcit as a "humanitarian exception"
to Vietnamese law (reftel A). The adopted child meets the
INA definition of an orphan; however, the GVN has confirmed
Mission's understanding that Vietnamese law does not yet
provide for this type of adoption, pending implementation of
a bilateral agreement. Furthermore, the license granted to
the agency involved in this case explicitly forbids it from
involvement in adoptions1. Medical issues surrounding this
case are also problematic, and investigation indicated a
lack of transparency regarding fees. Although the GVN's
motivations in this case appear to have been good, the case
is still emblematic of the lack of rule of law in Vietnam.

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A New "Special Needs" Adoption Case in HCMC
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2. (SBU) On May 6, DHS/HCMC forwarded an approved I-600
petition filed by prospective adoptive parent (PAP) Kathleen
Renee DICKINSON on behalf of orphan NGUYEN, Thuy Thu (DPOB:
01JUN2002, HCMC). 2On May 10, Conoffs met with PAP and
Vietnamese facilitator, Ms. NGUYEN Thon Thi Diem Thuy, an
employee of U.S.-based adoption agency Children's Hope
International (CHI). PAP explained that she had been working
with CHI to find a child to adopt since 2002. In summer
2004, CHI notified her that special needs orphans in Vietnam
were available for adoption, and that they had identified a
two-year old "HIV-positive turned negative" orphan who had
been abandoned at a hospital at the age of six months. PAP
agreed to adopt this child. (The CHI facilitator advised
post that this is the first of eight orphan adoption cases
being processed by the agency involving children who
initially tested positive for HIV antibodies, but
subsequently tested negative.) During the interview, PAP
said she was uncertain about the details of the adoption
process, as CHI had handled everything for her. 3

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Adoption Approved In Apparent Contravention of VN Law
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3. (SBU) According to the CHI facilitator and the Ministry
of Justice's Department of International Adoptions (DIA) in
Hanoi, this adoption was approved as an "exception" for
humanitarian reasons on the basis of the child having
"special needs". At present, however, Vietnamese law does
not allow for foreign adoptions except by citizens of
countries that have concluded a bilateral agreement (except
for foreigners resident in Vietnam or Vietnamese emigres),
and does not allow for ad hoc exceptions. The GVN is
drafting amendments to Decree 68 to allow for special needs
adoptions, but Mission was told on May 26th that these
amendments are still in the drafting process and have not
yet been submitted to the Prime Minister's office for
approval.

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A 4Lack of Definition for "Special Needs"
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4. (SBU) In the present case, DIA apparently deemed the
child to be a "special needs" case because she had tested
positive for HIV antibodies at a local hospital when she was
abandoned there at the age of six months. According to HIV
experts consulted by Embassy Hanoi, HIV antibody tests on
infants are not useful because blood from children of HIV-
positive mothers often contains the mother's HIV antibodies,
even when the HIV virus itself has not been passed on.
These antibodies disappear from the blood of seronegative
children as the children develop their own immune systems.
In this case, the child tested negative for HIV three months
after the initial test, and tested negative again in three
subsequent tests. Despite a positive result on the initial
test, this child is healthy, as confirmed by the results of
the IV medical exam.


5. During USG discussions with DIA regarding special needs
cases, DIA made clear that it considered a baby testing
positive for HIV antibodies to be in the special needs
category regardless of whether the child became seronegative
subsequently. (There may have been a mistaken view that
these children were being cured through early treatment of
HIV.) This category of children may indeed be difficult to
place, but does not fall within any medical definition of
"special needs", and the GVN has yet to provide its own
definition of what constitutes "special needs" for its
puroses.

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U.S. Adoption Agency Operates Despite Legal Restrictions
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6. (SBU) Under current GVN law, only approved adoption
agencies from countries with bilateral agreements are
permitted to operate in Vietnam. The CHI facilitator
provided post with a copy of CHI's license dated April 1,
2005, which authorizes CHI to assist "poor children in
difficult situations", but states specifically that the
organization is not permitted to work on adoption cases.
The facilitator confirmed that she is a CHI employee and in
fact works on adoption cases. The facilitator said that she
personally identified the child in the current case, matched
the child with the PAP, assembled the dossier, and presented
the dossier directly to DIA in Hanoi.


7. (SBU) In addition to its adoptions work, CHI provides
funding for orphanages. The US agency has an agreement with
HCMC's Tam Binh Orphanage (where the child resided prior to
being adopted),to provide USD 48,535 this year to "support
cost of raising children, support the orphanage staff's
living conditions, and for administration and project
management expenses." CHI provided similar levels of
support to Tam Binh for the past three years. The agreement
requires Tam Binh to report every six months to CHI and to
local authorities on how the funding is used. The CHI
facilitator said that the orphanage had not reported to CHI.
The orphanage director, Mr. NGUYEN Van Trung, said that he
made annual reports. He provided a copy of the report
submitted to local authorities, which included only very
broad categories of expenses.

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Adoption Fees Remain Opaque
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8. (SBU) Initially, PAP stated that she did not remember the
amounts or purposes for fees paid to CHI. Subsequent
interviews with PAP, CHI facilitator, and the orphanage
director revealed a fee structure that was lacking in
transparency. Following her interview, PAP submitted a list
of fees she had paid to CHI, totaling USD 12,660. The
largest item on this list of fees was labeled "International
Program Fee", in the amount of USD 9,520. 5This fee
included a USD1,000 donation to the orphanage. The
orphanage director told conoff that PAPs voluntarily made
donations to the orphanage after an adoption, but the CHI
facilitator said that the USD 1,000 donation was part of the
total fee, and was provided by the facilitator with the PAPs
subsequently signing a donation book when visiting the
orphanage. Until our interview, the PAP seemed unaware that
she had made a donation to the orphanage.

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Comment
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9. (SBU) The child in this case is an orphan under the INA
and has no medical ineligibilities. Since this adoption is
an exception to existing GVN law as written, we confirmed
with the DIA that the adoption decree submitted by the PAP
was considered valid before issuing the immigrant visa on
May 26th.


10. (SBU) There are three issues in this case that highlight
the problem of adoptions in Vietnam: First, this adoption
is clearly not consistent with GVN law as written; second,
the agency working this adoption is not permitted to engage
in this activity in Vietnam; and third, the basis for
deeming this child a special needs case is scientifically
suspect. 6

WINNICK
_______________________________
1It's not forbidden from operating, just from being involved
with adoptions, right?
2Is this relevant or unusual?
3Moved to section on fees below.
4An orphan does not have to be sick to be special needs. In
the US there are a lot of healthy children that are
considered to be special needs, such as African-American
children and older children.
5I'm guessing this is essentially CHI's fee for the
adoption? To me, it doesn't seem out of line with what
adoptions cost elsewhere.
6Not true. "Special needs" is not a scientific
determination, but a social one. Besides, we've been told
that the positive, then negative test is scientifically and
legitimately possible.