Hope for families over Vietnamese adoptions

Hopes are high that adoptive couples who have been stuck in limbo since the suspension of a bilateral agreement with Vietnam will benefit from efforts to re-open the South-East Asian state for adoption.

The suspension, which was announced in January 2010, followed international concerns about the process of adopting children from Vietnam.
Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald, stated she wants officials at the Adoption Authority of Ireland to travel to Vietnam to begin talks on an administrative agreement.
She said she believed Vietnam would ratify the Hague Convention on inter-country adoptions and securing an administrative agreement with the country would speed up the process of adoption for Irish couples.
“I’d like to bring some clarity to the situation of inter-country adoptions so that adoptive couples are not having to reinvent the wheel,” said Ms Fitzgerald.
Under the Adoption Act, which entered into law last November, couples can only pursue inter-country adoptions from states that have ratified the Hague Adoption Convention or have a bilateral agreement with Ireland.
Vietnam signed the Hague Convention in December and is expected to fully ratify it shortly. If a new administrative agreement is secured with Vietnam, it is expected that Clare couples who had received their adoption packs before the suspension can begin adopting as soon as Vietnam ratifies the Hague convention.
Deputy Joe Carey has welcomed the government’s announcement that it will try to begin discussions.
Last week, he met with a representative group of Clare families who have undergone long delays in their adoption processes, with huge uncertainty as to the outcome.
“The majority of these families have been cleared for adoption and have already gone through rigorous procedures. I am currently in the process of securing a meeting between Clare families affected and the government department,” he said.