Uganda tightens foreign adoption rules to thwart child trafficking

Evelyn Lirri, Thomson Reuters Foundation

Lawmakers passed a bill this week that requires foreigners seeking to adopt Ugandan children to live in the country continuously for at least one year before applying, thus ending the quicker route of claiming legal guardianship. Previous "fast track" adoptions allowed foreigners to adopt Ugandan children (often with living parents) in a matter of days. The new bill also provides that inter-country adoption will only be permitted in cases where the child has no known relatives, legal guardians or foster parents.

In recent years, hundreds of Ugandan children have been adopted by foreigners who have manipulated the rules to win guardianship within days and then take the children out of Uganda. An investigation in May 2015 revealed widespread corruption in Uganda's intercountry adoption process with Ugandan parents bribed, tricked or coerced into giving up their children to U.S. citizens and other foreigners.