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Sat, Feb 11 2012
Row about the missing files of abandoned children unfolds
Photo: Krassimir Yuskesseliev
A day after Sofia city hall said that the biggest maternity hospital in the city, Sheinovo, was missing files of children born and abandoned there between 2003 and 2008, the Social Welfare Agency (SWA) said that the files were not exactly missing.
On March 27 2009, Bulgarian National Television (BNT) said that the SWA had found information about the "missing files".
SWA told BNT that the problem with the children’s files was not a criminal one but rather "an administrative issue", suggesting that there could be a problem in how files have been kept at the hospital.
Hristo Monov, deputy chairperson of the State Agency for Child Protection, told BNT that "the system is worked out in such a way that not a single file of a child can go missing. We can not have a situation when children are dropping out of the system with no one knowing what is happening to them".
He referred to media speculation that behind "Sheinovo missing files issue" laid a scheme for adopting abandoned children without people following legal procedures.
Some, like Bulgarian-language mass circulation daily 24 Chassa quoted their own sources, who claimed that because legal procedures for adopting a child in Bulgaria was very slow and difficult, candidate parents have come up with a way to go around it.
According to the paper’s source, a couple willing to adopt a child get in touch with a single mother who wants to abandon her child. The mother gives birth and the husband (of the married couple) immediately recognises the child as his own. After some time his wife adopts the child as her own.
Even if the court decides to do a DNA test for the child and the man, the legal procedure takes at least a year. During this time the baby is living with the couple and in most cases the court decides that it is in the baby’s best interest to remain as their child, 24 Chassa said.
The story about Sheinovo is also about to become a political one. Sofia city hall was tipped-off about the missing files by the Sheinovo’s new director Ivan Kostov in February 2009.
When Kostov took over, he found "gaps in the documentation" kept by Sheinovo’s previous director Dimitar Dragiev.
The latter told BNT that the attack on him was because he had decided to enter politics with one of the right-wing parties. He dismissed all allegations.
On March 27 2009, Bulgarian National Television (BNT) said that the SWA had found information about the "missing files".
SWA told BNT that the problem with the children’s files was not a criminal one but rather "an administrative issue", suggesting that there could be a problem in how files have been kept at the hospital.
Hristo Monov, deputy chairperson of the State Agency for Child Protection, told BNT that "the system is worked out in such a way that not a single file of a child can go missing. We can not have a situation when children are dropping out of the system with no one knowing what is happening to them".
He referred to media speculation that behind "Sheinovo missing files issue" laid a scheme for adopting abandoned children without people following legal procedures.
Some, like Bulgarian-language mass circulation daily 24 Chassa quoted their own sources, who claimed that because legal procedures for adopting a child in Bulgaria was very slow and difficult, candidate parents have come up with a way to go around it.
According to the paper’s source, a couple willing to adopt a child get in touch with a single mother who wants to abandon her child. The mother gives birth and the husband (of the married couple) immediately recognises the child as his own. After some time his wife adopts the child as her own.
Even if the court decides to do a DNA test for the child and the man, the legal procedure takes at least a year. During this time the baby is living with the couple and in most cases the court decides that it is in the baby’s best interest to remain as their child, 24 Chassa said.
The story about Sheinovo is also about to become a political one. Sofia city hall was tipped-off about the missing files by the Sheinovo’s new director Ivan Kostov in February 2009.
When Kostov took over, he found "gaps in the documentation" kept by Sheinovo’s previous director Dimitar Dragiev.
The latter told BNT that the attack on him was because he had decided to enter politics with one of the right-wing parties. He dismissed all allegations.
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or could this be an issue of just selling babies? adoption here is a slow process, but digging deeper might eventually show that people in Sheinovo just get money for "mishandling" documents and then selling the abandoned newborns to whomever.
please don't let the plight of abandoned children become a 'political' one. Everyone knows the children are better off with abandoned parents. I have been trying to even find ways to foster a child in the summer months and met with too many bureacratic obstacles. but worse are the 'parents' who expect the orphanage to feed the child for the winter and then use them as slave labor in the summers, and yet again marry off the girls underage for financial arrangements. Please understand the children deserve better than this and these so-called parents deserve no rights at all.