Indian Family in Fight to Repatriate Stolen Daughter

[grandmoon]

AN INDIAN mother, whose child was kidnapped and illegally adopted to Australia, has accused the country's officials and the girl's adoptive parents of blocking the now teenager from having contact with her and of making no effort to try and repatriate the girl.

Fatima, who only uses one name, will travel to New Delhi on Tuesday to try and meet with officials and hold a news conference in a bid to be reunited with her daughter Zabeen who was kidnapped by child-stealers near the family home in the slums of Chennai in 1998.

The then two-year-old was sold to a corrupt adoption agency that forged records to make it appear she had been abandoned. She and another child were fraudulently represented as siblings and adopted by a family in Queensland.

Indian police uncovered the scam in 2005 and arrested the child-stealers who provided details of the children who were stolen. Their information was matched with adoption agency records that confirmed Zabeen's situation, prompting police to alert Australian authorities. They said they would investigate, but did not return the girl to India.

The adoptive father said he would not approve a DNA test as he feared the evidence would be grounds for repatriation under international law.

Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/indian-family-in-fight-to-repatriate-stolen-daughter-201302...

[grandmoon]

My heart goes out to the natural parents and the child. 

Why has this been able to go on for 8 years??

[cherry*135]

I also feel sorry for the adoptive parents. They wouldn't have known the child was snatched when they adopted her and wouldn't have forseen that her real parents would show up and want her back in their lives.

No win situation for either set of parents, nor the girl.

The girl would be about 16/17 yo now?

[mainecoon1]

Sad story Grandmoon

I don't know much about the law but at the age of 17 I would have thought it was up to the daughter to decide whether she wants to stay with her adoptive parents of go back to her biological parents.

[lady*em]

Yep, I can imagine this girl would be just thrilled to be forced to leave Australia for life in India as part of a strict Muslim family from the slums.  Just delighted. 

Very sad set of circumstances to be sure, but the girl should not suffer.

[azureline**]

On Monday, Fairfax Media tracked down the Australian adoptive parents who said that they had been willing to allow contact between their adoptive daughter and the Indian family, on the grounds that there would be no attempt to forcibly repatriate the girl to India.

But the adoptive father said the biological parents had not agreed to the deal.

''We want to do something. We have been very worried, but we are not going to do anything unless there is an agreement that they would not try and repatriate the girl against her and our will,'' said the adoptive father who cannot be identified under Queensland law.

''We got a lawyer to write a letter to their lawyer seeking this … but we never got a reply.'

It sounds like the girl does not want to return to India?