LIVING

This August, seven Catalan families who had flown to the Democratic Republic of Congo to collect their adopted children had serious problems leaving the country, prompting the Generalitat to suspend all dealings with Congo adoption agency Adic. Although these families were later able to leave with the children, 16 more families (14 of them Catalan), who were in the process of adopting from Congo, were told their application would be suspended and that they would be found children from other countries or other parts of the Congo.

This caused furore among all the prospective parents; international adoption is a long, arduous and emotional process and many had already formed an attachment to their new son or daughter. Some felt the Generalitat had left them–and the orphans–high and dry. In response, the Generalitat’s Secretary of Families and Infants, Jaume Funes acknowledged that “there was so much pressure to adopt in Catalunya, the Generalitat had been obliged to contract with countries that may not have the right conditions for adoption.” He later went on to recommend the adoption process be tightened up so that the number of families adopting abroad is reduced by a third.

Of course, it is only the negative stories that hit the headlines. For every family affected by the Congo fiasco, there were around 90 more who successfully adopted children from abroad last year. In fact, the total number stands at 1,419, mainly from China (622), Russia (441) and Ethiopia (107). The previous year it was 1,562–up more than a third from 2003. According to Generalitat figures, Catalunya has the highest number of international adoptions in Spain (the number for Madrid was 841 in 2005, for example) and, in relation to population, has the highest umber of adopting families in Europe. By comparison, the total number of children from other countries adopted in France was 4,136 last year.

While no official study exists on the reasons for this, a spokesperson from the Entidad Colaboradora de Adopción International (ECAI) believes it is due to the small number of native children available for adoption (only 121 Catalan children were adopted last year) and the fact that the number of second families in Catalunya is on the increase. This is reinforced by the Generalitat. "Couples who are on their second marriage may be too old to have a child together so they want to adopt," says Maria Antonia Rafas, a spokesperson for the Generalitat. Infertility can also be an issue. Whatever the reason, the international adoption process takes years, rather than months, and it can be expensive, so the fact so many parents enter the process at all makes the figures compelling. As one prospective parent says, "the process is long, but it is not complicated."