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Latvia's parliament on Thursday passed new amendments to the Law on the Protection of the Children Rights, under which American citizens would no longer be able to adopt Latvian children, member of parliament Artuss Kaimins told Sputnik on Thursday.
The bill, banning intercountry adoption …
"The process of deinstitutionalization in Latvia is moving forward," says this article from Latvian Public Broadcasting. "The number of children in institutions has decreased three times over the past decade, the Ministry of Welfare (LM) told Latvian Radio May 12. This process means that in time inclusive services will be available in Latvia, and children as well as adults with functional disabilities will not have to live in institutions."
According to this article, the Latvian government is seeking to raise the minimum age at which children living in institutions in the country can be sent abroad to stay with a "host family" in the US. The article reports that, currently, children under the age of seven have been sent abroad in these host programs. The Welfare Ministry's proposed law would raise the minimum age to twelve. "The ministry also wants to introduce a norm that explicitly states foreigners taking care of children abroad would not be prioritized when decisions concerning adoption are made," says the article…
The Parliament of Latvia has issued a formal complaint to the UK House of Commons, claiming that children of Latvian descent are being “illegally and forcibly adopted by British families,” says the article. The complaint was issued in light of a recent case of a six year-old Latvian girl who was removed from her mother’s care. The girl’s mother believes that her daughter was taken away unnecessarily and that decisions about her daughter’s placement have been made without her. According to the article, other Eastern European countries have made similar complaints regarding British adoption…