NOTES ON THE CURRENT STATUS OF ADOPTION IN THAILAND (uploaded to website 2/2002)

Thai-adopt database members and adoptive parents Arthur Brandwood and Margot Ryan (Australia) edit an Australian adoption periodical and have good information on the progress of adoptions in Thailand, thanks in part to their periodic journeys and strong relationships with Thai officials and social workers.

Arthur (arthurb@bigpond.net.au) posted the following personal comments a few months ago on the Thailandadopt listserv, mostly based on observations about calendar year 2000. They are reprinted here with his permission, followed with brief information from the US State Department about Thai adoptions to US citizens last year. Please note that Arthur's comments, though knowledgeable, do not represent official communications from the DPW or other involved parties.

There have been quite a number of posts lately asking about/speculating on the rates of adoption, numbers of applications and so on in Thailand. I thought the following data might be useful. They are based upon recent discussions with DPW plus some stats relating to one home, The Vienping Home in Chiang Mai, which should be reasonably representative of overall rates. These were obtained from the most recent annual report of the home.

Numbers of Adoptions

In 2000, the Thai Adoption Board placed 2,500 local adoptions in Thailand, most of which were related-family placements. There were 580 international adoptions from Thailand to all countries. Thailand is currently receiving 700-800 overseas applications per year.

According to DPW, there is a current increase in processing times caused by resource problems in the provinces. There are not enough trained social workers available in the provincial homes who are able to complete the "Family Investigations" that confirm the availability for adoption of children in the care of the department. DPW is working at getting more staff into the provinces to address this problem. Editor's note: Some provincial/orphanage officials counter that delays occur just as often at DPW in Bangkok, rather than at the provincial level......)

Practice For Age of Applicants vs.

Age of Children Placed

The only Thai legal requirements are that applicants must be at least 25 and must be at least 15 years older than the adoptive child. The actual practice is usually as follows:

* Couples under 40 are matched with children under 12 months

* Couples 40-45 are matched with children 1-4 years

* Couples over 45 are matched with children 4-6

* Couples over 50 are matched with children 7-8

* Children over 8 are not generally placed overseas.

For applicants with more than two children, placement requires special review and approval by the adoption board case by case.

Rates Of Admission and Leaving Care Of DPW

The Vienping Home (Chiang Mai, also often spelled Vieng Ping) annual report for 2000 gives the following stats.

In the year covered by the report, 262 children were admitted to the home by the following categories:

Abandoned: 84 (32%)

Unmarried pregnancy: 32 (12%)

Improper care: 30 (11.5%)

Criminal parents: 28 (11%)

Orphans: 24 (9%)

Insane parents: 21 (8%)

Street children: 17 (6.5%)

Parents on welfare service: 12 (4.6%)

Poor: 10 (3.3%)

Family breakdown: 2 (0.8%)

Lost children: 2 (0.8%)

In the same year, 186 children left the home for the following reasons:

Returned to parents: 78 (42%)

Overseas Adoption: 60 (33%)

Died*: 18 (9.6%)

Transferred to other welfare: 15 (8%)

Local adoption: 12 (6.5%)

"Earn for Life": 3 (1.6%)

* Note that Vienping is the principal home caring for HIV-infected children in Northern Thailand. Thirteen of the 18 died from AIDS. In 2000, the home had 114 children born of HIV-infected mothers.

The apparent contradiction between the ratio of local to overseas adoption for the home (where overseas adoption predominates) and for all cases dealt with by the DPW adoption board (where domestic adoption predominates) is explained by the bulk of local adoptions being family adoptions (i.e. adoptions by relatives) where the children will be in the care of the birth family/relatives and not be living in a children's home.

Stats 1994-2000 On Actual Numbers Of Local And Overseas Adoptions From The Vienping Home:

Year Local Overseas

1994 12 14

1995 11 22

1996 14 20

1997 11 32

1998 16 50

1999 14 74

2000 12 61

I understand that there has been a large and successful project over the last year to place almost all of the children in the Vienping Home into local foster care, pending more permanent resolutions such as adoption or return to birth family.

A couple of additional comments:

*The number of annual applications is currently exceeding the number of annual placements.

*The number of children entering DPW homes exceeds the number leaving, and the population in DPW care is increasing.

There is a real pressure on resources and budgets as the government grapples with a failing economy and clear priorities to meet election commitments to reduce costs of access to certain public services, notably access to health care. This is resulting in substantial resource cuts in many areas, and DPW has not escaped its share.

There are, in other words, a growing number of children requiring families, and there's no shortage of willing applicants. However the economic and budgetary constraints, combined with the specific problem of not enough staff available to conduct the Family Investigations, means that the children in care are not able to be released for adoption as quickly as all involved would wish.

The DPW is clearly well aware of where the choke points in the process are and is at least trying to reallocate resources to fix the problem, but I guess this will take time.