Nepal Gets Ready to Resume Foreign Adoptions

Nepal gets ready to restart international adoptions that had stopped in the previous year following allegations of child trafficking for sale

As a legal officer at the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Affairs, Adhikari has been bombarded by queries and requests since the announcement last month that foreign nationals would again be allowed to adopt in Nepal.

The decision was greeted warily by the United Nations and child rights groups who say that some of the problems that led to abuses of the system had yet to be resolved.

Adhikari, who spends his days fielding queries from foreign adoption agencies seeking clarification of the new regulations, insists that Nepal has learned from its mistakes

"The crux of international adoptions is matching children with prospective parents, and in the past there were weaknesses in the matching system," he said.

Under the new regulations, foreigners will no longer be able to deal directly with children's centres, and the matching of adoptive parents and children will be done by a government body.

"The new rules and processes will make the process better managed and more transparent," Adhikari said.

In the past, foreign couples paid up to 20,000 dollars to adopt a child - a huge amount of money in such an impoverished country and one that critics said spawned an illicit adoption market.

Under the new rules, fees are fixed at 8,000 dollars per adoption, with 5,000 dollars going to one of 38 approved children's homes and 3,000 dollars to the government.