Once orphans, still homeless
Congolese government denies exit visas for orphans adopted by Americans
Hundreds of orphans in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have devoted parents and caring homes in the U.S. awaiting them, yet they are still bound to their home country and remain in orphanages due to the African nation’s decision to halt adoptions.
DESPAIR — Many adopted orphans have remained separated from their new parents. Google Images
According to Fox News, the Congolese Immigration and Emigration Office cites human trafficking as the reason for the decision to deny exit visas to adopted orphans.
While the adoption halt may be in efforts to slow the burgeoning sex trade in the region, many of these adoptions have already been legally paid for and approved.
Instead of being held in this awful holding pattern, these children should be able to come to the U.S. and live with their legal families.
Fox News reported that with numbers growing, upwards of 350 of the underprivileged country’s orphans have parents in the U.S. who have been given legal custody — approved by both the U.S. government and courts in the African nation — but have been forced to live in foster care or stay in orphanages because the nation stopped issuing exit visas for children almost a year ago.
Many American parents have been thrown into this painful game of limbo, waiting and wondering if they will ever see their children. This is the case of Sheri Smetana, an adoptive mother of a 16-month-old Congolese boy, Henry.
“He’s been legally part of the family since January,” Smetana said in an article on foxnews.com. “All we need is an exit visa.”
The U.S. Senate has called on the Congolese government to release the American children, according to a source at The Boston Globe. The Congo, among other nations, has been slowing the pace of international adoptions recently, according to Reuters.
I understand the want and need of these nations to find safe and loving home for these children, but the parents who have legally adopted their children should be able to bring them home. Human trafficking is a serious issue that plagues societies around the world, and strict background checks should be done by both
countries for potential adoptive parents.
These children are no longer citizens of the Congo and should be given the right to leave. More attention by both the people and governments needs to be given to the issue in order to bring an end to this halt.
In what some might call an unlikely turn of events, Congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle have been moved to action by these parents’ heart-wrenching stories and have begun working together to bring these children to their American homes.
New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, the House chair of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Organizations, has brought awareness to the growing issue in Congress. He stated at a recent hearing that the issue of African orphans is one imbued with “strategic implications.”
“We have all heard of the scourge of child soldiers, how orphaned children are recruited and brutalized, themselves turning into remorseless killers,” Smith said.
It is increasingly dangerous for these children to remain in the war-torn Congo. With conflict surrounding them and disease infecting them, the clock is ticking for these children to come to the U.S. The biological parents of these children have been victims of a civil war, natural disaster, poverty and HIV/AIDS, which has been infecting the area for years. These orphans typically have not known easy lives, as an estimated 56 million children have lost at least one parent in Africa, according to The Boston Globe.
We need to make a better future for these children who have no one else to turn to. In the darkest areas of the world there is always hope. These Congolese children have been teased with this hope with promises of a better home in America. Congress must continue to fight for these families to bring an end to this orphan crisis.