U.S. curbs visa for adopted babies

U.S. curbs visa for adopted babies

CAMBODIA: The United States said on Wednesday it would maintain a
tight clamp on issuing visas for Cambodian babies adopted by
Americans following a "baby buying" scandal which erupted here in
August.

In October, U.S. embassy in Phnom Penh advised their nationals
who were planning to adopt in Cambodia to postpone their trips.

A Cambodian court ordered that 10 babies, then aged between 10
days and two years, as well as a three-year-old boy and a nine-
year-old girl, be handed back to the agency accused of arranging
illegal adoptions.

The children had been seized in a police raid on the Asian
Orphans' Association (AOA) in August, which rights group LICADHO
said was coercing impoverished parents into selling their babies
for as little as US$20 each. --AFP