(Google Translation)
Edited by: FT
5/16/17 – 18u06 Source: Belga
Our reporter and photographer Kurt Wertelaers Benoit Freine went to Congo in late April and spoke among others with Suriya and Usman, the biological parents of Zakiatyu in our country in an adoptive family lives. © Benoit Freine.
In Belgium it was perhaps for years know that there was a problem with the Congolese Tumaini orphanage, from where abducted children were brought to our country. That suspect Flemish parliamentarian Lorin Parys (N-VA). The federal government had already warned in 2014 the regions and communities of the practices.
The federal prosecutor’s office is currently conducting an investigation into all adoptions that have happened through the orphanage in Kinshasa. The institution of the Belgian-Congolese Julienne Mpemba of Namur already did adoptions for years to our country. In at least three cases it involved identity fraud and possibly kidnapping. The three children were removed from their parents under the guise of a holiday camp.
“A source at the French Agency for Adoption gave me information showing that Foreign Minister Didier Reynders and Minister of Justice Koen Geens already before the opening of the adoptive channel with that orphanage in 2014, had given a negative opinion. That was based on the ‘rogue background’ of Mpbemba “said Parys in parliament today.
Put aside?
An NGO has informed the Belgian embassy in 2013 and in 2014 informed of malpractices in the orphanage. Mail which was not read at the embassy?
Lorin Parys (N-VA)
According to the MP that opinion must then also have been provided to the Flemish agency. “Moreover, the NGO Les Amis de Nelson Mandela pour la défense des droits humains” in both 2013 and 2014 informed the Belgian embassy of malpractices in the orphanage. Is this mail not read at the embassy? Or is it cast aside by the public prosecutor or by the adoption agency?
Considerations
Welfare Minister Jo Vandeurzen (CD & V) is counting on the investigation to bring the truth to light and committed to full cooperation of the Flemish services. He points out, however that in intercountry adoptions always a balance must be struck between two ‘feelings: “On the one hand there is the question of adoptive parents to successfully complete adoptions and proactively seek new channels. on the other hand, there is restraint and caution must be exercised since in those countries not all elements of the rule of law – as we know – are available, “he said.
