WASHINGTON — The number of foreign children adopted by Americans has plunged to its lowest level in more than a decade as some countries have cut back on adoptions to the United States and others have struggled to meet stricter standards intended to combat corruption and child trafficking, government officials said Thursday.
Some prospective parents, nonprofit adoption agencies and members of Congress are raising concerns about the sharp decline in foreign adoptions, which dropped by 62 percent to 8,668 in the 2012 fiscal year from a high of 22,991 in 2004, according to a report released by the State Department on Thursday.
State Department officials attribute the decline over those years primarily to the internal policies of several countries, particularly China, Russia and South Korea, which have sharply limited adoptions to the United States in recent years as they have worked to encourage more domestic adoptions at home.
In the 2012 fiscal year, 2,697 children came to the United States from China, down from 7,038 in 2004, the statistics show. In 2004, 5,862 children from Russia were adopted here as opposed to 748 in the 2012 fiscal year, which ended in September.
The number of international adoptions is expected to fall even further in the current fiscal year as a result of Russia’s decision to curtail all adoptions to the United States. The Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, approved the ban on adoptions in late December as part of a broader law retaliating against the United States for its efforts to punish Russian officials accused of human rights violations.
“I’m not sure what the future holds for intercountry adoptions from Russia to the United States,” Ambassador Susan Jacobs, the State Department’s special adviser for children’s issues, said in an interview on Thursday.
The number of international adoptions has declined every year since 2004. Homeland Security officials, who process petitions for international adoption, say that stricter standards intended to combat corruption have also played a role in the decline. Some have questioned the State Department’s decision not to permit new adoptions in recent years from countries including Guatemala, Vietnam and Cambodia. They argue that the United States should continue to process adoption cases while working to reform the adoption programs in those countries, which have been dogged in the past by allegations of corruption.
But Ms. Jacobs said, “For us the right number is the number we can process ethically, safely and transparently”
She said the additional scrutiny gives American parents and the American public greater confidence that the children who arrive here have not been stolen or sold or taken from parents under false pretenses. She said the State Department was eager to reopen the pipeline to countries that have improved their programs.
“Vietnam and Cambodia are making great strides and improving,” Ms. Jacobs said. “I think it’s quite likely that we will be doing some adoptions from those countries this year, probably in the second half of the year.”
Homeland Security officials declined to comment on the newly released adoption figures. But a senior official at the department said last year that she believed that the nation’s tough stance had left thousands of vulnerable orphans stranded in institutions overseas.
The official, Whitney Reitz, who was then in charge of children’s affairs and parole policy at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services agency, said at the time that while some might believe it is best not to allow adoptions from some countries, “when I think personally about the individual children in these countries who need families and who are stuck in institutions, it really doesn’t look like such a great outcome to me.”
State Department officials maintain that ensuring that a transparent, legal process is in place is more important than the number of foreign orphans who are adopted. China, Ethiopia, Russia, South Korea and Ukraine remain the top feeder countries to the United States, according to the report, which is released annually.
Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, said on Thursday that the government must do more to prevent vulnerable children from growing up in orphanages.
Senator Landrieu, co-chairwoman of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, described the decline in international adoptions as “tragic.” She said the State Department had “failed to put the resources or personnel in place to help countries” meet the stricter standards required by countries that have signed The Hague convention on intercountry adoption. The treaty, which took effect for the United States in 2008, establishes accreditation requirements for adoption agencies and protections against child trafficking.
U.S. Adoptions From Abroad Decline Sharply
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U.S. Adoptions From Abroad Decline Sharply
