We have received this urgent, breaking news memorandum from the Department of State’s Office of Children’s Issues:
The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa has confirmed the Ethiopian Parliament passed new legislation banning adoptions by foreigners on January 9, 2018.
At this time we do not have new information about how the Ethiopian government will process pending cases. We will continue to engage with the Ethiopian government and will share additional information as soon as we receive it.
The Department of State’s update also listed the following two news articles, one by the BBC and this one by the Independent, for more information related to the news.
If you have questions regarding your particular case, we recommend that you contact your adoption service provider.
This week has been difficult for international adoption. Ethiopia banned all foreign adoptions and India has banned Holt International from placing any more children in the US. It’s very sad for all the couples with broken hearts tonight.
So given all the country closures, at what point is international adoptions no longer viable? How many international adoption agencies have closed or filed for bankruptcy? And how many agencies still in business are bouncing couples from country to country hoping to complete an adoption.
I understand that adoption is getting tougher, but it seems we are just throwing away money with hopes to adopt, but not a viable way to adopt unless you get very lucky.
I agree that it’s been a tough week – tough year – for the international adoption scene. You might be interested in this resource, as a means of checking the recent trends and changing numbers based upon the most recent numbers available to us: http://ow.ly/hSfd30hJfTp
Don’t be too despairing, there are still stable and predictable programs out there. Check out our country comparison charts here: http://ow.ly/abbz30hJg0h
Thanks for reading!