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| Fewer Chinese Babies Adopted by Dutch |
2/14/2007 |
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AMSTERDAM — The number of Chinese children adopted by the Dutch decreased dramatically last year. According to researcher Brian H. Stuy, this was due to the elimination of a large child-trafficking network in China.
According to a 2005 study in the province of Hunan, hundreds of children were sold to teahouses and later given out to foreign couples for adoption for a fee. This was almost one fifth of all the children adopted by foreigners that year.
After the network was uncovered, the number of Chinese children adopted by the Dutch decreased, although adoption bureaus in the Netherlands working with China strongly deny any former involvement in the Hunan schemes. In 2006 there were 362 Chinese children adopted, as compared to 666 in 2005 and 800 in 2004.
Another factor may be that married couples wishing to adopt a baby from China have to wait for 450 days now. In 2005 the waiting period was almost half that time.
Meanwhile, Chinese babies are “hip” now. Chinese authorities informed that the number of applications from foreigners to adopt a Chinese child has doubled in the last three years and reached 24,000 per year, ANP reports.
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