On May 16, 2017, the State Department issued the following update on the status of international adoptions from Ethiopia. You might remember our report in April that all international adoptions from Ethiopia were suspended.
Here’s a portion of the statement, taken from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs’s website:
U.S. Embassy Addis Ababa has been informed that the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWA) will resume its processing of intercountry adoption cases, but that it will only issue denial letters. This will apply to all intercountry adoption cases, regardless of their stage in the process or the nationality of the adoptive parents. To date, the Ethiopian government has not provided the Office of Children’s Issues or the Embassy any formal communication regarding the suspension of intercountry adoptions.
Additionally, it has been announced that the Prime Minister of Ethiopia is conducting a series of meetings with various government leaders throughout Ethiopia during the month of May. For this reason, there has been a lack of response to the State Department’s requests for meetings. Both The Office of Children’s Issues and the Embassy will continue to follow up and press for pertinent information that might come out of those meetings, and for a resolution to the many adoption cases that were caught “in process” on or before the April 21 suspension. Finally, the State Department commented that they will continue to advocate for international adoptions to resume, but that U.S. citizens seeking to adopt internationally should consider other country programs.
If you have questions particular to your adoption process through Ethiopia, it is imperative that you contact your adoption service provider.
We will continue to follow the story and update you as appropriate. Creating a Family wishes to express its greatest sympathies to those families whose adoptions have been caught in this suspension.
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