US embassy cable - 05HOCHIMINHCITY559

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 000559 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR CA/OCS/CI, L/CA AND CA/VO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CVIS, CASC, KOCI, KFRD, VM 
SUBJECT: New Vietnamese Adoption Case Raises Old Concerns 
 
REF:  (A) HCMC 1507  (B) STATE 258720 
 
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Summary 
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1. (SBU) Post recently investigated the second case this 
year in which GVN authorities approved the adoption of a 
Vietnamese orphan by an Amcit as a "humanitarian exception" 
to Vietnamese law (reftel A).  The adopted child meets the 
INA definition of an orphan; however, the GVN has confirmed 
Mission's understanding that Vietnamese law does not yet 
provide for this type of adoption, pending implementation of 
a bilateral agreement.  Furthermore, the license granted to 
the agency involved in this case explicitly forbids it from 
involvement in adoptions1.  Medical issues surrounding this 
case are also problematic, and investigation indicated a 
lack of transparency regarding fees.  Although the GVN's 
motivations in this case appear to have been good, the case 
is still emblematic of the lack of rule of law in Vietnam. 
 
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A New "Special Needs" Adoption Case in HCMC 
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2. (SBU) On May 6, DHS/HCMC forwarded an approved I-600 
petition filed by prospective adoptive parent (PAP) Kathleen 
Renee DICKINSON on behalf of orphan NGUYEN, Thuy Thu (DPOB: 
01JUN2002, HCMC).  2On May 10, Conoffs met with PAP and 
Vietnamese facilitator, Ms. NGUYEN Thon Thi Diem Thuy, an 
employee of U.S.-based adoption agency Children's Hope 
International (CHI). PAP explained that she had been working 
with CHI to find a child to adopt since 2002. In summer 
2004, CHI notified her that special needs orphans in Vietnam 
were available for adoption, and that they had identified a 
two-year old "HIV-positive turned negative" orphan who had 
been abandoned at a hospital at the age of six months.  PAP 
agreed to adopt this child. (The CHI facilitator advised 
post that this is the first of eight orphan adoption cases 
being processed by the agency involving children who 
initially tested positive for HIV antibodies, but 
subsequently tested negative.)  During the interview, PAP 
said she was uncertain about the details of the adoption 
process, as CHI had handled everything for her. 3 
 
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Adoption Approved In Apparent Contravention of VN Law 
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3. (SBU) According to the CHI facilitator and the Ministry 
of Justice's Department of International Adoptions (DIA) in 
Hanoi, this adoption was approved as an "exception" for 
humanitarian reasons on the basis of the child having 
"special needs".  At present, however, Vietnamese law does 
not allow for foreign adoptions except by citizens of 
countries that have concluded a bilateral agreement (except 
for foreigners resident in Vietnam or Vietnamese emigres), 
and does not allow for ad hoc exceptions.  The GVN is 
drafting amendments to Decree 68 to allow for special needs 
adoptions, but Mission was told on May 26th that these 
amendments are still in the drafting process and have not 
yet been submitted to the Prime Minister's office for 
approval. 
 
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A 4Lack of Definition for "Special Needs" 
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4. (SBU) In the present case, DIA apparently deemed the 
child to be a "special needs" case because she had tested 
positive for HIV antibodies at a local hospital when she was 
abandoned there at the age of six months. According to HIV 
experts consulted by Embassy Hanoi, HIV antibody tests on 
infants are not useful because blood from children of HIV- 
positive mothers often contains the mother's HIV antibodies, 
even when the HIV virus itself has not been passed on. 
These antibodies disappear from the blood of seronegative 
children as the children develop their own immune systems. 
In this case, the child tested negative for HIV three months 
after the initial test, and tested negative again in three 
subsequent tests.  Despite a positive result on the initial 
test, this child is healthy, as confirmed by the results of 
the IV medical exam. 
 
5.  During USG discussions with DIA regarding special needs 
cases, DIA made clear that it considered a baby testing 
positive for HIV antibodies to be in the special needs 
category regardless of whether the child became seronegative 
subsequently.  (There may have been a mistaken view that 
these children were being cured through early treatment of 
HIV.)  This category of children may indeed be difficult to 
place, but does not fall within any medical definition of 
"special needs", and the GVN has yet to provide its own 
definition of what constitutes "special needs" for its 
puroses. 
 
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U.S. Adoption Agency Operates Despite Legal Restrictions 
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6. (SBU) Under current GVN law, only approved adoption 
agencies from countries with bilateral agreements are 
permitted to operate in Vietnam.   The CHI facilitator 
provided post with a copy of CHI's license dated April 1, 
2005, which authorizes CHI to assist "poor children in 
difficult situations", but states specifically that the 
organization is not permitted to work on adoption cases. 
The facilitator confirmed that she is a CHI employee and in 
fact works on adoption cases.  The facilitator said that she 
personally identified the child in the current case, matched 
the child with the PAP, assembled the dossier, and presented 
the dossier directly to DIA in Hanoi. 
 
7. (SBU) In addition to its adoptions work, CHI provides 
funding for orphanages.  The US agency has an agreement with 
HCMC's Tam Binh Orphanage (where the child resided prior to 
being adopted), to provide USD 48,535 this year to "support 
cost of raising children, support the orphanage staff's 
living conditions, and for administration and project 
management expenses."  CHI provided similar levels of 
support to Tam Binh for the past three years.  The agreement 
requires Tam Binh to report every six months to CHI and to 
local authorities on how the funding is used.  The CHI 
facilitator said that the orphanage had not reported to CHI. 
The orphanage director, Mr. NGUYEN Van Trung, said that he 
made annual reports. He provided a copy of the report 
submitted to local authorities, which included only very 
broad categories of expenses. 
 
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Adoption Fees Remain Opaque 
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8. (SBU) Initially, PAP stated that she did not remember the 
amounts or purposes for fees paid to CHI. Subsequent 
interviews with PAP, CHI facilitator, and the orphanage 
director revealed a fee structure that was lacking in 
transparency.  Following her interview, PAP submitted a list 
of fees she had paid to CHI, totaling USD 12,660.  The 
largest item on this list of fees was labeled "International 
Program Fee", in the amount of USD 9,520.  5This fee 
included a USD1,000 donation to the orphanage.  The 
orphanage director told conoff that PAPs voluntarily made 
donations to the orphanage after an adoption, but the CHI 
facilitator said that the USD 1,000 donation was part of the 
total fee, and was provided by the facilitator with the PAPs 
subsequently signing a donation book when visiting the 
orphanage.  Until our interview, the PAP seemed unaware that 
she had made a donation to the orphanage. 
 
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Comment 
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9. (SBU) The child in this case is an orphan under the INA 
and has no medical ineligibilities.  Since this adoption is 
an exception to existing GVN law as written, we confirmed 
with the DIA that the adoption decree submitted by the PAP 
was considered valid before issuing the immigrant visa on 
May 26th. 
 
10. (SBU) There are three issues in this case that highlight 
the problem of adoptions in Vietnam:  First, this adoption 
is clearly not consistent with GVN law as written; second, 
the agency working this adoption is not permitted to engage 
in this activity in Vietnam; and third, the basis for 
deeming this child a special needs case is scientifically 
suspect.  6 
 
WINNICK 
_______________________________ 
1It's not forbidden from operating, just from being involved 
with adoptions, right? 
2Is this relevant or unusual? 
3Moved to section on fees below. 
4An orphan does not have to be sick to be special needs.  In 
the US there are a lot of healthy children that are 
considered to be special needs, such as African-American 
children and older children. 
5I'm guessing this is essentially CHI's fee for the 
adoption?  To me, it doesn't seem out of line with what 
adoptions cost elsewhere. 
6Not true.  "Special needs" is not a scientific 
determination, but a social one.  Besides, we've been told 
that the positive, then negative test is scientifically and 
legitimately possible.