After the introduction of strict legislative frameworks, the process of international adoption in Latvia has effectively come to a standstill. At the same time, domestic statistics are also declining.
Previously, most Latvian orphans found families in the USA, but now this practice is a thing of the past. Journalists from TV3 Ziņas investigated how the state monitors the fate of those who have already left and what awaits the children who remain in the system.
Currently, there are 352 children registered for adoption. A significant portion of them are teenagers, who are rarely taken in by local families. Many children live in orphanages for years and refuse to transition to families, while others continue to hope for a miracle.
The turning point was the year 2022. That year, the last processes under the old rules were completed: five people went to the USA. Since then, international adoption has ceased, and internal figures continue to decline. For comparison, last year, half as many children were adopted as in 2024.
"The downward trend may be related to socio-economic conditions: people are not ready to take on additional responsibility. Until the situation stabilizes, people are concerned about their economic situation," said Zita Veldze, Deputy Director of the Department of Child and Family Policy at the Ministry of Welfare.
New Geography and Closed Borders
Until 2022, the main destination for Latvian children was the United States. Today, this is legally impossible. The rules have changed: adoption is now allowed only to countries that have ratified the Hague Convention and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as those that have signed a separate bilateral agreement with Latvia. This list includes Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Poland, Estonia, and Lithuania. However, there is no interest in Latvian children from these countries.
Linda Balčūne, head of the Zvannieki Family Support Center, was one of the initiators of tightening the law. She believes that the previous system was designed to simplify the export of children from the country as much as possible.
"This is a historic step for Latvia and a sign that the country is taking responsibility for its children," Balčūne believes, emphasizing that the new norms exclude the repetition of questionable schemes from the past.
The Control Problem: What Happens Across the Ocean
The main argument of supporters of the ban is the inability to track the fate of a child after departure. In Latvia, even in the case of a foster family's failure, the child remains under the watch of social services. The situation in the USA was different.
"At one point, we came across a report describing the terrible practice of re-adoption - where a child can be handed over to another family, and the state does not monitor this. In our circle, there were foster families from which children were sent for foreign adoption. After a few years, they tried to find out something, but discovered that the child was no longer with that family," Balčūne recounts.
However, the Ministry of Welfare assures that they closely monitor the last children who went to America.
"Since 2021, the regulations have changed - stricter oversight has been introduced after adoption. Foster families must provide reports twice a year for the first two years, and then once a year until the child reaches adulthood. We now regularly receive these reports," explains Zita Veldze.
After the rules became stricter, foreign agencies that acted as intermediaries between foreign adopters and the Latvian system completely ceased their activities in the republic.
