UNICEF and the Swiss-based Terre des homes (TDH) in a report released on Friday in Kathmandu said there were major irregularities in the way children were tricked by unscrupulous agents pretending to run 'orphanages'. The two-year study revealed instances of abduction of children and babies being put up for adoption without their parents' consent.

An undercover report in Nepali Times two years ago reported how a baby was offered for sale by a Kathmandu 'orphanage' for $6,500. A public outcry over this and other reports of children being sold to foreign parents after bribing authorities lead to the government to ban inter-country adoption from Nepal in 2007. (See: 'Baby bajar' #339)

The government allowed 442 pending adoptions to go ahead this year, but announced new stricter rules. However, the agencies said the definition of what made a child eligible for foreign adoption was still too vague.

"Children should have the right to first grow up in their own country, their own culture and with their language," said UNICEF's Nepal representative, Gillian Mellsop, "adoption should preferably be within Nepal. Inter-country adoption should only be a last resort." The report urges the government to pass an Adoption Act that has these safeguards.

Joseph Aguettant of TDH said inter-country adoption should not be left to private agencies, and the government should be involved in setting procedures and regulating it. "A lot of Nepali children put up for foreign adoption are not even orphans and their parents are misled into parting with their children," he said, "poverty alone is not enough reason for inter-country adoption."

Demand for Nepali children is growing in European countries like Spain, France and Italy as well as the United States as Latin American and southeast Asian countries ban foreign adoption. India is also moving towards only domestic adoption.