UK suspends Guatemalan adoptions

Last Friday the UK officially suspended all adoptions from Guatemala. V told me this morning that she watched some colocha on local TV arguing that her adoption ring provided a kind of public service as many indigenous people were having too many children and would otherwise be dumping them in barrancos.

Announcing the ban, Kevin Brennan, Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Children, Schools and Families, stated that:

"I am now introducing a suspension of adoptions in response to new evidence which demonstrates that: there are insufficient safeguards in the Guatemalan adoption system to prevent children being adopted without proper consents being given and improper financial gain being made by individuals in the adoption process. In particular that: there is a trade in babies being sold for overseas adoption; and mothers are being paid, or otherwise encouraged, to give up children for adoption."