Cambodia and the United States agreed to resume adoptions from January 1 next year, Long Visalo, secretary of state at Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Monday.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with visiting Ambassador Susan Jacobs, special advisor for children's issues of the United States, Long Visalo said that US citizens can request to adopt Cambodian children from January 1, 2013.
"We set a quota of between 100 and 200 children to the United States a year and a child must be aged below 8 years old," he said. "We do not sell our children, but find better future for them."
He said that Cambodia ratified the Hague Convention on Inter- Country Adoption in 2007.
The country banned foreign adoptions in 2009 in order to taking time to better regulate the adoption process. On December 3, 2009, it passed the law on Inter-Country Adoption.
The law makes clear that the government is cracking down on child trafficking, and it bans profit making in adoption, provides harsher penalties for lawbreakers, and also requires adoptions to only be handled by authorized and trained officials.
Briefly speaking to reporters after the meeting, Susan said, " It was a successful meeting, and it will be good cooperation between Cambodia and the United States."
About 4,000 to 5,000 Cambodian children have been adopted by the United States, Italy, France, Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom, Long Visalo said.
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