Kathryn Joyce documents adoption corruption in Ethiopia:
Ethiopia accounted for nearly a quarter of all international adoptions to the U.S. The number of Ethiopian children adopted into foreign families in the U.S., Canada, and Europe has risen from just a few hundred several years ago to several thousand last year. The increase has been so rapid — and, for some, so lucrative — that some locals have said adoption was "becoming the new export industry for our country."
That increase has also brought stories of corruption, child trafficking, and fraud. Parents began to publicize the stories their adopted children told them when they learned English: that they had parents and families at home, who sometimes thought they were going to the U.S. to receive an education and then return. Media investigations have found evidence that adoption agencies had recruited children from intact families. Ethiopia's government found that some children's paperwork had been doctored to list children who had been relinquished by living parents as orphans instead, which allowed the agencies to avoid lengthy court vetting procedures.
(Photo: Biniam Volk, 3, holds up a U.S. flag while sitting with his adopted family (L-R) sister Lauren Volk, 10, brother Max Volk, 7, mother Caeli Volk and father Joe Volk of Bristow, Virginia, during the children's citizenship ceremony at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office November 14, 2011 in Fairfax, Virginia. In celebration of National Adoption Month, 25 children representing nine countries, including Bulgaria, China, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Korea, Liberia, Russia, Taiwan and Vietnam, celebrated their U.S. citizenship during the ceremony. By Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.)
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