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