Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry and US Department of State to discuss adoption

The Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry and the U.S. Department of State will discuss adoption of Kazakhstan children in Astana early next week, Tengrinews reports citing the chairman of the Commission for Children's Rights Protection of Kazakhstan Ministry of Education and Science Raissa Sher. “We will hold the meeting on this and other issues with representatives of the U.S. Department of State in our Foreign Ministry on September 23,” Sher told the journalists. The Commission and the Foreign Ministry have already held several meetings with representatives of the General Prosecutor’s Office, she added. Speaking about the two Kazakhstan-born children adopted by U.S. parents but later found spending their time in the the American Ranch for Kids, a place for troubled teenagers, she said: “We are not siting idle. We have gathered some information. We were awaiting the official statements from the U.S. Department of State on the case,” Sher said. Kazakhstan Education Ministry had filed a request to U.S. authorities inquiring about the children kept at the American Ranch for Kids. No reply was provided and Kazakhstan suspended adoption practices with the U.S. until the necessary information would be made available. According to the Ranch’s Executive Director Joice Sterkel, only two children from Kazakhstan lived at the Ranch for Kids in Montana , U.S. and both of them have gone back to their parents. However, according to the information obtained from the Ranch by Russian children's ombudsman Pavel Astakhov one of the two Kazakhstan adopted kids was discharged to an unspecified psychiatric clinic for unspecified reasons, not to his parents. According to Raissa Sher, both children were returned to the adopting parents. “The children's health is far from good. According to the information that we have, these children had mental disorders earlier, during the adoption, at a young age. Apparently, their parents tried to take steps to improve their condition: the kids went to see psychologists and lived at this Ranch. This Ranch is like our schools for children with deviant behavior. One of these children underwent a rehab in a special clinic. The children are currently at their parents'. The parents have not abandoned them. They love their children a lot,” she explained. Earlier this week Kazakhstan Majilis deputies suggested to create the Children's Ombudsman in Kazakhstan amid the recent scandal with children adopted by foreigners and subsequently mistreated. “Of course, if we can, we should create the Children's Ombudsman in Kazakhstan,” Sher said commenting the initiative. There have been a lost of scandals around the United State and children the American adopt from Kazakhstan. The children don't always end us in good families with descent parents and this raises a lot of concerns in Kazakhstan. Last month an American couple was found guilty by the American jury trial for raping two children they adopted from Kazakhstan for several years in a row. The girl was 8 and the boy was 13 when they were adopted from Kazakhstan. And only this year it became possible for them to protect their rights and stand up for themselves - they are now 17 and 21. Earlier this month Reuters uncovered an American online network they call "private re-homing". The network was used to exchange adopted children - mostly originating from foreign countries, but 30% of the kids are Americans - who were no longed wanted by their adoptive parents for one reason or another. Some of the kids were even traded for clearly sexual purposes. Some of the kids adopted from Kazakhstan were among the victims of the "exchange".