Officials from Vietnam invited to talks on adoption

THE OFFICE of the Minister for Children has invited officials from Vietnam to Ireland in September in an effort to move talks forward on the resumption of an adoption agreement between the two countries.

Minister of State for Children Barry Andrews, who visited Vietnam in late June, said there had been good progress in his talks with officials then but as yet there remained no date in sight for the resumption of an agreement between the two countries.

The State’s five-year bilateral agreement with Vietnam on adoption expired on May 1st this year, leaving more than 200 couples, who had applied to adopt from the country, in limbo until a new agreement is signed.

The previous agreement was allowed to lapse due to international concerns about the adoption process in Vietnam, voiced primarily in a US government report published last year.

During his visit earlier in the summer, Mr Andrews asked officials to consider allowing 20 Irish couples, whose applications had been fully processed by the Department of International Adoptions in Hanoi by May 1st, to be facilitated in their adoptions.

This request was acceded to by the Hanoi government and those 20 couples will be allowed to travel and adopt.

A spokeswoman for the Minister said yesterday this had been a “gesture” by the Vietnamese government.

She agreed there was controversy as to why a higher number of couples were not included in the request but stressed the 20 couples’ applications had been fully processed by May 1st.

“We have been advising people that we cannot guarantee anything but it is our intention to conclude an agreement as soon as we possibly can.”

Asked what was causing the delays, she said: “It’s very complicated.”

She said both states were intent on ratifying the Hague Convention on International Adoptions and at the same time, both countries were in the process of changing their adoption legislation “substantially”.

“So we are trying to get an agreement which bridges the two existing legal regimes and the two pending legal regimes. It’s a negotiation with a foreign government and they have a very different legal system to that which we have.

“The difficulty is we don’t want to add to the frustration couples have and at the same time it is important that the best interests of children are protected.”

Asked whether the 200-plus couples who have applied for adoption from Vietnam should consider other countries, she said she could not direct people, but added: “It would be understandable if people did.

“We have issued an invitation to Vietnamese officials to come here in September but it may not be possible to hold meetings then. It is hoped we can.”