WikiLeaks & International Adoption

With WikiLeaks disclosing U.S. embassy communiques, perhaps it isn't surprising that some of them touch on international adoption.  Here are a few examples:

WikiLeaks brings to light suspected baby trafficking from Egypt to Canada

The RCMP and Canadian consular officials in Cairo have been investigating up to a dozen cases where couples are suspected of having trafficked babies from Egypt into Canada, according to leaked diplomatic cables.

The details are outlined in American embassy dispatches made public this week by WikiLeaks.

Some of the suspected cases involve priests of the Coptic Christian community in Egypt, who are trying to find homes for street children but run into Egypt’s Islamic law, which bans adoption, according to a spokesman in Canada.

The crackdown began after American and Egyptian investigators dismantled a ring that used false birth-registration papers to bring babies to the United States, arresting 10 people, including two U.S. citizens, said a February, 2009 cable from the U.S. Cairo embassy.

See the actual comminique here.

WikiLeaks publishes first cable from Romania

Wikileaks has published the first cable sent by the US Embassy Bucharest. The document dated April 2006 is related to the international adoptions in Romania and to a letter sent by a Romanian adoption official.

The document is part of the 250,000 and more cables from US embassies around the world that Wikileaks is making public these days. According to Wikileaks, the cable from Bucharest is classified as confidential. It bears the signature of Taubman. The US Ambassador to Romania during December 2005-December 2008 was Nicholas F. Taubman.

The cable speaks of a report showing that none of the 1,092 identified children would be available for adoption, because of a series of reasons which are listed in the document.

Click here for the actual communique.

I suspect we'll see more as WikiLeaks releases more. . . .