The Adoption Amendment Bill will stop unsafe overseas adoptions being recognised under New Zealand's citizenship and immigration processes. Photo: Unsplash / Kelli Mcclnitock
Warning: This story contains details of cases that may disturb some readers.
The government is putting a temporary halt to some international adoptions being recognised in New Zealand, after revelations people with previous convictions for violence or sexual abuse were adopting children overseas.
The Adoption Amendment Bill will stop unsafe overseas adoptions being recognised under New Zealand's citizenship and immigration processes, and is being introduced under urgency.
In the most recent publicised case, an adopted girl was given a visa to live with her new family in New Zealand, despite them being investigated by police for people-trafficking.
Social workers and other officials have uncovered cases of children being held in domestic servitude, adoptive families taking wages from teenage children, and parents adopting as many as 10 children each.
MBIE research suggested children and young adults entering New Zealand as a result of a non-genuine adoption were at higher risk of sexual abuse, labour exploitation and domestic servitude, as well as reports of physical abuse, neglect and being prevented from attending school.
Several briefings to ministers warned of the extent of the problem, and the consequences for victims.
In one case highlighted by RNZ, a 13-year-old girl told Oranga Tamariki was treated like a slave and a dog, with 35 injuries on her body. Her adoptive parents were convicted for abuse and jailed, but not prosecuted for trafficking.
'Tip of the iceberg'
Announcing the change, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee said overseas courts considering adoptions to a New Zealand family do not always access adoptive parent's criminal or child protection record.
"For example, Joseph Auga Matamata, who was sentenced to 11 years in 2020, had previous convictions for violence when he adopted three boys from overseas. He withdrew one boy, aged 12, from school, covering his tracks by saying that he had returned to his home country.
"For a year, the boy was locked up and treated as a domestic servant. He was made to work in the field and often didn't receive necessary medical care. The other two boys escaped by scaling a tall perimeter fence in the middle of the night.
"This case is the tip of the iceberg. It is completely unacceptable for our international adoption laws to be used in this way. This abuse is preventable, and this Government is acting decisively to prevent future harm to children adopted overseas into unsafe situations."
Nicole McKee. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The law change would not affect countries where adoption practices already safeguard children, she said. It will also restrict the ability of the Family Court to grant adoptions where the adoptive parent or child are overseas under section 3 of the act.
"The government is progressing this change under urgency as any delay is unacceptably prolonging the risk to children and young people. The temporary suspension will provide the time to develop and pass law that ensures international adoptions are safe for the children and young people involved."
McKee said the law change would be immediate but temporary, until a long-term solution was introduced next year when the public could make submissions to select committee.
"I recognise that the suspension will be disappointing for some families planning to adopt from overseas, most of whom are caring people who adopt with the best of intentions.
"Recognising this, the government is taking steps to preserve adoption pathways where it has been able to establish that the arrangements for international adoptions are safe.
"We are exempting countries where I am satisfied that adoption practices sufficiently safeguard children and young people. International surrogacy arrangements will continue to be recognised by the New Zealand Family Court and Ministerial discretion will be able to be exercised in individual cases for citizenship and immigration."
She said there were about 1000 children per year coming into New Zealand using Section 17 of the Adoption Act.
"They are being sexually abused, physically abused, emotionally abused," said McKee. "Some are being trafficked. Some are being used as slave labour.
"We don't know how many of these children are being abused. In fact, we would say that it is likely that the majority of children who come to New Zealand using this pathway are coming to loving, caring families. However, if just one child is being abused in this way, this government feels that we need to put a stop to it."
McKee said she intended to introduce longer-term legislation to Parliament next year.
ECPAT Child Alert director Eleanor Parkes said it had been a long time coming.
"It was a very sudden announcement for us, given that it's been a number of years that we've been advocating for changes to Section 17, because we know that it's so badly needed to safeguard children - no action for so long, and then all of a sudden, all of the action, and it's suspended immediately.
"We have not had enough action across the board when it comes to protecting children from exploitation and trafficking. And so it is really good that it's on the radar now."
She hoped the temporary ban would not take too long, as child adoption was used as a migration pathway for Pacific families who need them for health, education opportunities, and family support.
Tearfund's Claire Gray agreed, saying the change was welcome, but genuine, kinship adoptions would be caught up in the ban.
She urged the government to move quickly in coming up with the permanent fix.
"I'm really hoping that if the government is using urgency to suspend Section 17, I hope that they'll act with similar urgency to find a good long-term solution."
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