Families scared to adopt Maltese children, fear retribution

Families who have adopted Maltese children have had their car or front door burnt in a clear sign of retribution, instilling fear in many other prospective parents when they make plans to adopt a child.

This pushes many of them to not want to adopt Maltese children, preferring to take a longer, more arduous and more expensive route to adopting children born in other countries.

Maltese families are scared to adopt Maltese children, lawyer Josette Sultana, one of the founders of Adoption Opportunities, said. “We have heard stories where birth parents have gone after people who have adopted their children and burnt their car or front door,” she told The Malta Independent on Sunday in an interview.

Dr Sultana was approached by this newspaper after information from Parliament revealed that only 27 Maltese children have been adopted over the last decade.

She said that this happens because birth parents would be going through a circle of negativity and many times they would not want to let their child go. Added to this, Malta’s small size makes it much easier to locate somebody and so the majority of approved prospective parents prefer to spend thousands of euros in searching for their future adopted child overseas.

There is another reason why the country has a very low rate of Maltese adoptions, Dr Sultana said. This is the lack of sharing of Maltese children’s profiles by Appogg, the entity responsible for adoption processes.

“Appogg does not inform other private agencies on how many Maltese children are up for adoption or who these children are,” she said.

Although there is no information as to why this happens, it is speculated that this could be because Appogg wants to protect the identity of the children given that Malta is such a small state.

She added that although it is a government institution, Appogg should have the same equal standing as any other adoption agency.

Dr Sultana added that some parents actively avoid the governmental entity as they say that through it the adoption process is unnecessarily prolonged. This happens in spite of having a situation in which Appogg offers adoption courses for free while private agencies charge a fee.

“People prefer to pay us (private adoption agencies) and go through the same process that Appogg might offer because our social workers are always on call regardless of the time, especially when the children arrive in Malta. Apart from that, people have told us that social workers working within Appogg are constantly changing, making the adoption process even more painful as prospective parents need to tell their life story from the beginning every time,” she said.

Adoptions in Malta

Dr Sultana said that she also believes that the lack of Maltese children being adopted is not law related but has to do more “with dynamics and practice”, since laws relating to adoptions (the Child Protection Act) has recently been amended to facilitate adoptions.

The lawyer said that in Malta it is very hard for birth parents to give up their children for adoption, so instead a care order is issued, thus the children are taken care of by the child protection services. From there they either go through the fostering system or else end up in care homes.

“Nowadays it seems that the care homes option is always decreasing and parents prefer more the fostering process,” she said.

In the case of fostering, the authorities know who took the children for a certain period of time, in some cases until the birth parents are clear and rehabilitated from their issues and ready to take care of their children again.

The lawyer said that this time-framed plan makes sense “because ideally in all circumstances children should remain with their natural parents”. She added that in some instances children are placed under a care order because parent/s find themselves in situations out of which they cannot come out easily, such as prostitution, drugs or jail sentences.

Adoption procedure

Dr Sultana, who has also gone through the State’s adoption process herself, said that when it comes to the adoption process, Appogg has a list of prospective parents and when there is a child for adoption they just start calling families on that list. Speaking from experiences of prospective adoptive parents, they are normally called and are asked on the phone whether they are interested in adopting a child or not.

The adoptive parents informed the agency that these cases are where the parents gave their consent to the adoption of the child or where it is most likely that the parents were going to give the consent to the adoption of the child.

“The reasons why parents opt to give their consent for the adoption of their child vary.”

Dr Sultana added that when social workers inform prospective parents through a phone call that there is a child for adoption, they expect to be informed of the decision of the prospective adoptive parents in a timely manner, due to the sensitivity of the case.

This is not a matching process really and truly and most times the parents need to see more details about the child, the health of the child and the circumstances that lead to the adoption before making up their mind.

For example Portugal sends Adoption Opportunities a list of children who are ready to be adopted, with the agency passing on the information to the potential parents. If they express interest in any of the children’s profiles, the agency informs the Social Care Standards Authority, who in turn seeks additional information about the child from its Portuguese counterpart.

A final decision is then taken by the parents once the information they receive, both from Malta and Portugal, can be independently verified via a professional of their choice. It is only then that the adoption process could be concluded.

The same happens with adoptions from India.

When it comes to Maltese adopting from Bulgaria the adoption agency would need to send an application per prospective approved parent/s. Bulgaria is different since the authorities in Bulgaria go through the applications and match the child/children in accordance with the parent’s reports. Information is exchanged about the child/children, the medical history and anything that might help the parents to take an informed decision.

Recommendations to facilitate adoptions of Maltese children

“Maltese children who have spent the majority of their years institutionalised find it very hard to adapt once they turn 18 when they are expected to leave the premises and lead an independent life,” said Dr Sultana.

For there to be more adoptions of Maltese children, Dr Sultana said Appogg should share more information regarding Maltese children who are up for adoption. This should be done in a way as to protect the identity of the children; however, Appogg should strive to support and use all the resources available to support the children and give them an opportunity to live in a family environment which will give them the tools for their future as adults and/or as parents.

“One suggestion, if identity is the problem for Appogg, it should send the profiles of the Maltese children who are up for adoption without their names and photos, just a description of them without much detail, which should include their age, a background of their stay at care homes and health details,” said the lawyer.

Sultana said that as a private adoption agency there were efforts to try and understand the reason as to why this information is not shared “but they never got back to us as there seems to be no structure in place”.

“The most important thing for these children is not to remain institutionalised,” Dr Sultana concluded.