There were over 52 000 children registered in the protection system in December last year. For a balanced development, each child has the right to be cared and nourished by a family. The child that for some reasons cannot be raised in his biological family, should be placed in the protection system only temporary until the problems of his biological family are resolved or an adoptive family is identified for him.

Regarding the adoption, there is only a small number of children who are adoptable (about 3000 in 2017). Some children need to wait even a couple of years until they arrive in a family, despite the small number of adoptable children. In order for the number of adoptable children and families to rise/grow, the governmental authorities need to better work together.

In the General Assembly we suggested an amendment to open the international adoptions regarding the difficult adoptive children who after several attempts were not able to be adopted by a local family; this extension is available only for the countries part of the Haga Convention. The international adoptions would be strictly guided only by the protection agencies from the partner countries and it would follow a strict and transparent process. The process will be strictly monitored by both agencies before and after the adoption is finalized. This model has been successfully implemented in other developed countries from Europe and abroad with the best example of USA where international adoptions are open and in 2017 allowed the foreign citizen whose countries are part of the Haga Convention to complete 83 such adoptions and Bulgaria where for over 11 years the international adoption is a successful story. Because of some disabilities, many Bulgarian children weren’t adopted in their country but were allowed to be adopted internationally and now have a happy life together with their new families.

All these measures aim to add value to the Romanian protection services. Until 2020, Romania took the responsibility to close all the large, rezidential type’s centers. This needs to happen in order for the institutionalized children to develop holistically and not be deprived of the much needed love.

Please see full report here issued by Oana Bizgan, MP.