Fate of North Korean
Orphans Lies in Hands of U.S. Senate
11/08/2012
Children, some as
young as three years old, scurry into the shadows to elude Chinese authorities
who routinely round up and deport North Korean orphans.
American families
stand ready to adopt these children, who are among the most vulnerable in the
world, and bring them into the fold of their families, but the U.S Senate is
standing between them, refusing to move legislation to facilitate adoption.
Although the House of
Representatives passed the North Korean Refugee Adoption Act, a critical piece
of legislation, on September 11, 2012, which compels the State Department to
devise a plan that enables U.S. citizens to adopt orphans from North Korea, the
U.S. Senate has failed to act.
Who are these kids?
North Korean orphans
are among the most vulnerable children in the world, especially those who have
become refugees in neighboring countries like China, Mongolia, Thailand and
other Southeast Asia, nations where they have no legal status and are at risk
of becoming victims of human trafficking.
These children, known
as "stateless orphans," number somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000.
The U.S. State
Department has reported that many orphans living in China are the children of
North Korean mothers, themselves trafficked. When the mothers are deported back
to North Korea, their children are left behind.
Others are orphans who
have escaped from North Korea, fleeing starvation and impoverishment to border
countries, like China.
How U.S. legislation
can help
The legislation that
passed the House and is simmering in the Senate would compel the U.S. Secretary
of State along with the Department of Homeland Security to devise a plan that
would address some of the barriers that currently prevent Americans from adopting
from North Korea.
Strained relations
between the U.S. and North Korean governments certainly play a part in the
current status quo, but so too does the fact that North Korea has failed to
ratify the Hague Treaty Convention, an international standard of adoption
guidelines designed to protect children that was first adopted in 1993.
The proposed
legislation directs the State Department to present tangible solutions to make
intercountry adoption possible between the U.S. and North Korea -- even if the latter
refuses to sign The Hague -- to help these stateless orphans and other refugee
children.
The legislation goes
on to call for the State Department to tear down barriers that currently
prevent families from adopting orphans from North Korea and other nations that
have not signed the Hague.
The Senate's failure
to act
Although the U.S House
moved quickly to pass the legislation that would set forth a clear path to have
these children become eligible for adoption, the U.S. Senate has been true to
its reputation as the cooling saucer of the House's hot tea refusing to move
the bill for a vote.
Back in February of
2011, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), together with two cosponsors, Sens. Mary
Landrieu (D-LA) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) introduced bipartisan legislation
but although it has been read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign
Relations no action has been taken.
There is urgency to
this legislation. It tasks the State Department with issuing a report with
recommendations to Congress within 180 days of its enactment. If the Senate
votes favorably in the coming weeks, Americans may be permitted to open their
homes to these orphans in 2013.
This is no small
matter. The fate of thousands of children rest upon the U.S. Senate getting
this right.
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Fiction of the North Korean Refugee Orphan
http://www.kpolicy.org/documents/interviews-opeds/120924christinehongfictionofthenorthkoreanrefugeeorphan.html
