Politics and Society

Uganda to US adoptions shrouded in corruption

Ugandan families have been subjected to bribery, trickery, and coercion for them to give up their children to United States citizens and other foreigners for adoption. This is according to a Thomas Reuters Foundation report released last week

Published

10 years ago

June 3, 2015

This Is Africa

Investigators from the Thomas Reuters Foundations have obtained documents, court data and interviews with whistleblowers, officials, victims and prospective parents establishing that:

Children’s birth histories are manipulated to give a false impression that some of these children are orphans
lawyers act as middlemen often receiving large payments
adoption underworld is a lucrative business with a culture of corruption
and much more

Data obtained from the United States’ State Department identified Uganda as Africa’s third highest of source of adoptions by US citizens with 201 children adopted in 2013/2014. Uganda falls behind Ethiopia and the DRC which have taken steps to restrict foreign adoptions.

According to the report, leaked data from Uganda’s Ministry of Gender, Labour as many as 20 percent of the children put forward for adoption were really orphans. The report also found that some parents gave up their children in the belief they would receive significant payouts from adoptive parents and children’s homes.

See the full report at the Thomas Reuters Foundation.