Little luck for childless couples

Only one-third of all couples in Switzerland trying to adopt a child from abroad are successful, a report has found.

The justice ministry said on Thursday that 299 foreign children were adopted last year, compared with nearly twice that number only four years ago.

Most of the children came from Ethiopia, Thailand, India, Colombia and Russia.

Many countries have succeeded in keeping children with their biological parents or placing them with adoptive parents nationally, a Bern symposium on adoption heard on Thursday.

Experts said the growing discrepancy between supply and demand could however lead to illegal practices.

The international accord on adoption, the Hague Convention on Protection of Children, only regulates co-operation between the authorities in signatory states, which includes Switzerland.

Therefore, the symposium heard, officials at the regional level across Switzerland must make greater efforts to uncover cases of illegally adopted children and prevent the practice in future.

The United Nations has said there is a large trade in babies in Guatemala, which it described as an “adoption industry”. Baby trafficking also flourishes in other parts of Latin America and in eastern Europe.