Afshan Khan, Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said at a news conference on Tuesday that no Ukrainian child should be put up for adoption in Russia.
“We have always insisted that no child be adopted during a conflict,” as the UN favors the return of children to their families. Afshan said the decision to transfer a child should be made in their best interest and every move should be voluntary.
“Especially to the Russian Federation, he stressed that adoption should never take place during or immediately after a “humanitarian” emergency, because children separated from their families “cannot be considered orphans” to stay in Ukraine.
Regarding children sent to Russia, we are working closely with mediators and networks to see how we can better document their cases,” he added, without providing up-to-date figures on the children.
The UNICEF director explained that the program “does not have access to children beyond the Russian border.” This is something we have to do in agreement with the Russian government.
In March, the UN expressed concern about the risk of forced adoption of Ukrainian children, most of them in the east of the country, particularly in institutions or boarding schools (about 100,000, orphans and about half of them with disabilities).
source: Noticias
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