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tv   Adoption Inc.  Al Jazeera  October 14, 2018 8:32am-9:00am +03

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you can do you even. the only place florence genova see their children now is in fairy tales. five years ago they sent them to stay with their system r.e.m. but when they returned to collect their children had disappeared. marian claimed she put them in a boarding school but in fact the children had been taken to america legally adopted without their mother's knowledge. what do you think about the fact that a family can come from another country and become the legal parents of somebody else's child to be sure you know who the one i meant to harm is and then he's going . to actually go for long as it or try to. marry him said she'd been approached by an agent who promised the children a free education. but that promise turned out to be a conduit for international adoption and by the time the sisters even suspected
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something was wrong the children were no longer bez if you had a chance to speak to the family that your children are living with what would you say to them. in one. go florence and jennifer among countless families in uganda whose children have been lost to international adoption and who leave. this industry isn't being driven by a supply of orphans in need of homes is being driven by demand from america barbara we need more children and we need to do and we have families waiting we need children we need today this woman worked for an american adoption agency it was her job to find children to be adopted them. in a market. for sale. faultlines teamed up with the investigator from to explore the markets in uganda children asking how this could happen who's
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responsible and if there's any hope these mothers will see their children again. and what that. will give them in when i'm at it. again and i'm going to young. men admire it. top of the lives no remote village about five hours by car from uganda's capital kampala. six years ago her son michael was adopted by an american family he'd been ill and she couldn't afford his treatment so when some people came to her community saying they wanted to help
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needy children she thought her son was lucky to be chosen. to win when you were. big. and. so she said so what happened to tab is incredibly complicated. with the help of an interpreter i tried to get the full story but even now six years later she seems confused about what she agreed to. i had you on me. going at the thing at the. top out of the laurel. he's. able to lean out that to me looking at the and. so she said that they committed that in fact court records show top as they consented to the
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adoption of michael legally speaking she's no longer his mother. laura and philip hunger are adoptive parents to michael and henry now he lives in portland oregon with this family philip and nora hunger. this is a local news report filmed last year with michael and another boy their doctors from china. three years after they took michael to america tabitha gave birth to another boy solomon. it's pizza night at the hunger home but something is missing when they heard the top of that had another baby and was again in need of help the hardest and money for solomon's calf. they wanted to adopt him to and sent an agent to talk to tabitha awash in hunger. yet they added the meal. we see the. now anatomy and. eventually the hunger came to uganda and hottest as she was called to a meeting in town parlor. she said she felt ill while she was there and had
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a dizzy spell it was then she says the woman at the meeting took solomon from her and gave him to laura hunka. we asked the hungus to confirm what happened at that meeting but they didn't respond to the question however they didn't see this the tab or the has repeatedly agreed to the adoption and that she signed documents to that effect. just by this tabitha told us that she had never wanted to give us on our way. and when you were doing at the dimia was. king. and she could see them was holidaying hatch and then she asked what about my chair how do i get my share then they said they told adam was on board bring that shadow of a man and. that's the day he was taken from her. top
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of the so she was still breastfeeding when solomon was taken away from her. she told us she felt so distraught the next morning she wanted to take her own life. that was more than two years ago and the last time top of that had her son. to find out more i went to the family court in town pala. they keep the chaotic archive containing thousands of files one for every child adopted including solomon. in his i found information about tabitha and the hunt the family as well as their american adoption agency journeys at the heart. the court records show that before hearings before solomon's adoption was approved. at the first two the judge adjourned saying top of the didn't understand what adoption was or wanted for
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solomon. but at the third hearing the records they tab of the returned to court and agreed to the adoption. of the fourth hearing the judge granted the adoption application and solomon became the hungers legal child. was it over your intention to sign away harmon and guardianship of solomon to a different family. but an american family can take a ugandan child back home with them without a visa to the u.s. and eighteen months later solomon still hadn't been approved the family on able to bring him home with them the hunters became frustrated. this is video taken by the orphanage last november this is been excruciating our family the hunger say the
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ugandan high court approved the adoption more than a year ago but when they went to the u.s. embassy to get solomons visa approved they were stonewalled they have not given us any reasons why that application has not been accepted. now do you think the hold up. had like to know the answer to that is well honestly. the us embassy refused to comment but again solomons court fall was useful. when we talked to tabitha told me she'd been called to a meeting at the american embassy in kampala the embassy staff at austerity she'd wanted solomon to be adopted. her claim that she told the official she was against the adoption is given some credence by documents in the file. it's a letter written by the u.s. embassy to the ugandan court describing solomon's adoption as problematic. only need the help we need the united states government to approve his application despite top of his insistence that she didn't want her child to be adopted solomon
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wasn't returned to her she told us she hadn't even been allowed to see him where a song and now suddenly. after a lot of searching i found a social worker who knew. the. sterile ones in charge of child welfare in uganda when she heard about top of the story she moved from the childminder being paid by the hungers to a government babies home there is one i took that action as it was she said responsible for children was because i received a complaint from them and she was insisting that she didn't want the child or when they say divest will be for me to move in and see where the child is flawless how
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much more information do you need i mean it's been over a year the tablet lost custody of solomon is more than a year. how many times you off the passengers they know before you or the process in i cannot say how many times you know it counseling is a process. and these drug war. stella is also behind a change to ugandan law which means that foreign families wanting to adopt now have to foster a child in uganda for at least one year. took effect in two thousand and sixteen the year before solomon was adopted. wanted to prevent just wish when we have people just flying today and get. on with the children the next two weeks that's what we wanted to avoid do you think a family in america who illegally parents the store would have any idea of the turbulence here in uganda is there where. they're aware because from the day i go
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to sort of. the dutch for me the good to know the been sent to me a message to call me i told them i would i wouldn't discuss them to issue a form but i would exchange e-mails and they didn't do that. but they've been communicating through their lawyers. but how could the hungers and met the legal obligation to foster solomon when they hadn't spent the required year in uganda. the judge in the case moses maci decided that since the hunkies had been paying someone to look after solomon they had in effect constructively fostered him . i wanted to ask judge maci why he had come to this conclusion but he declined to be interviewed. i also want to do know more about the american agency behind solomon michael's adoptions. are tracked down a former agent of baz barbara and about a camera she told me she'd spent three years working for journeys of the heart she
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was arrested in two thousand and fourteen and soon after that parted ways we met at an undisclosed location. so what was the involvement of journeys of the heart they were to provide their financial support and then i would provide this obvious. it's obvious was to find children that can be adopted they wanted everything fast first because if if you get a child today spends in a home relate to months three months. is adopted that means they're spending less on this chain. but if a child comes to us for a year. it's much expense and they would say that to you they would say we need children that can be adopted first it doesn't sound like they were very concerned about the children no it sounds like they were concerned about the business.
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business you say you felt a lot of pressure did you worry that there would be consequences if you didn't find the children of course those certainly are closing. up close and if. if you're not bringing in my children we are closing so they would basically threaten to fire you yes you didn't provide as many children as they wanted. there were allegations the barber had been trafficking children amongst other things eventually the police charged her with child neglect but she disappeared for a time and now police they have files missing she denies all of the charges. the barber was just a local agent for journeys of the heart. to find out more i needed to talk to the agency's director in the u.s. it's lansky. post
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a lot of attempts to get hold of david sklansky by email and on the phone i finally come to poland to see if i can find him in passing i think this might be his whom interests for this is a field i feel we. know good morning david sklansky yes i want to talk to you about some families in uganda who say their children were adopted against their wishes i'd rather not. georgia tell me about this series solomon who is currently living in a government institution because his mother in uganda doesn't want him to be adopted her and she's given conflicting stories or two family wants to adopt i've been trying to for some reason they don't seem to want to speak to me and my understanding is that on many occasions she has consented how it was as a mother need to object to an adoption reform a salesperson who steps question for me to stop the process the family want to
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continue so you would just fast to facilitate the american family. pretty much the family needed a change sooner us to. to try. to be there for them as they were or. we will help them before we believe their child has made it medically very medical records that mother was very desperate to believe her or her story just as we understood the beginning so in those with initiated alter that changed to the normal some judges were saying that the exceptions for medical medically exigent exceptions such as so and to be clear you don't have any regard for the change to the law that's not a concern to you it's. they're relevant and we have not to. encourage families or listen to their entreaties to to adopt from uganda since. apart from the holocaust yeah we can't really talk to us so after being contacted by the person
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did you inform them about the change to the norm or stay very certain that. international adoption can be complicated but this family says it has been like a living nightmare every day they're without their son the hungers contacted senators ron wyden and jeff merkley they've told us that there are scientists i think that our story is viable philippa nor hunka been very public in math to get solomon to the us so i was surprised when they told me by email they didn't want to be interviewed by fault lines. according to the records philip was in court when the judge ruled the tablet the didn't understand the implication of an adoption. so i wanted to know why the family was still pursuing it. we tried to talk to philip punkers he was getting into his car i want to talk to you about thomas and her son solomon for you when you send us email us at your back saying that we're not ok amor tabitha says she doesn't want this adoption to happen. and the court records
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reflect that it depends on. when you talk to him and it depends on which court records. ok i mean i've seen four sat score before hearings yeah what's your understanding of what her wishes are. at i can't talk about this my attorney we formed the information attorney she told us not to speak with you and not to speak with you. and then just before this film went to add we did hear from the hunter in an e-mail they insisted again the top of the has repeatedly agreed to this adoption. based. us photos of tabitha signing documents to that effect. we don't know if the hungers will succeed in bringing solomon to america but we do know his case isn't isolated. more than one thousand six hundred ugandan children have been
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adopted to america since one thousand nine hundred ninety nine but it's hard to know how many of them were actually orphans and how many may have had parents who still wanted them. for the past twelve years the council on accreditation has been regulating american adoption agencies. i wanted to know if journeys of the heart had been investigated over any of the issues raised in this film. so i talked to the c.e.o. richard kloberg can answer that question the answer is i don't know is that not the type of thing that ought to have come up when it came to rear crediting journeys of the heart. it would have if we had had access to that information yes and how would you get access to many would have had access most likely from the united states government. post in gondor whether it's a state department or homeland security their immigration and in the case of
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journeys of the heart he didn't get that information i just don't want to comment about any specific agency i asked him why his organization doesn't put more emphasis on investigating wrongdoing a.b.c.'s going about identifying whether that has happened is is not something that we are trained to do that we have the resources to do or or actually that we have in any way the capacity to do why if it's difficult to trust some of the institutions in countries like uganda which i think is a fairly well accepted fact why then would the department of state continue to allow into country adoption i think you'd have to ask the united states department of state i have asked myself that question again and again. and it is. it's
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a puzzle to me if the penn state department refused to be interviewed for this story that in e-mail they said they rely on their creditors to monitor and to see adoption agencies. it's been five years since florence and jennifer's children were taken to america. at best the adoption was deeply flawed in the process may have been fraudulent. the mother say they didn't even know it was happening to hunger never thought it out to have another level of autonomy that could be. about but about two weeks long i want to i don't know which. is his so hard up again i'm going. to knock on the norm on the phone. they've reported it as a crime to the police but now that the children are in america there's nothing
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anyone can do. the children belong to a different family now. i trace that family to their hometown. and the father agreed to be interviewed anonymously because he said he hasn't told us children their biological families looking for them birth first thing we do it's all dark or americans attorney who finalize the adoption in the states with us if them for. if it's legally finalized what we need to do to confirm that things are going to change for the children and oldest daughter and finalized what does it feel like to know that this some kind of to speak. to your children so. devastating we have children to go to bed every night in our home. whose parents in uganda wishing they were going to bed in their hood there are parents and you go on those who only see your children their children or their work
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electronically. she did use well intended concepts and turn them into a routine gaze like yourself who will try and end up being trolled traffickers into the family you know. what would you say if another family from america told you they were considering adopting from uganda i would signal that's the short answer told because you're saying that a full lot more. than you think you are when you fill out your agency application. once the child legally in america there's nothing anyone can do to get them back unless the adoptive family wants to retire. so it's possible that florence and jennifer will never see the children again. there might still be hope for top of them solomon. we are also the social worker amassing campagna if we could at least bring her to see her son he's now almost three and he's been separated from his
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mother for the majority of his life. i'm going to look at it. less than that but i'm. actually. now been a student. at the lead me to think you need a fucking way a good man and to get that. i can weigh in and he got to have me down. there i. saw him and didn't recognise his mother
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he seems to get when she approached show. she left him alone for a while to calm down. but it wasn't easy the second time. was. her her. own much too pretty. and i won't go as can't be many of them in time and on him a. woman is. makita what i. am. about by the way that.
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she has to leave him behind he isn't her child anymore. this legal tug of war has meant the solomon has lived in an institution for much of his life. and. indeed added i mean if you need to believe. any peeling you to make you in years was glad you did you know give me the. three jobs and though i only have one but i'm soo providing for my family. the first time i was admitted to hospital i didn't show any signs of imus.
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and all that but i don't buy my opinion and i have become very passed on stop thinking about the negative sides of from this. al-jazeera. he is from the us living with an ass in egypt. in the lead up to the u.s. midterm elections we'll be talking to the american people looking at key issues for voters from immigration to economic struggles to the health care system to greece's and women's rights join us throughout october for special coverage and analysis of the u.s. midterms on al-jazeera an ancient disease that continues to put half of the world's population if we do have a vaccine do to speed up the process of moving the disease in many parts of the world al-jazeera travels to tanzania and follows medical profession on the frontline of the battle against malaria and that is just three thousand people in trying to save fuel efficient to do this lifeline the end game on now to zero.
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