Thai Nguyen
"The last investigation team in this province went to Hospital A, the site of most abandonments in the province....When they arrived at the appointed time, they found the chief of police in the director's office. The police chief explained that... they were not allowed in Thai Nguyen province, and asked them to leave."
Investigation Memorandum — 7-31-07:
On July 20 and 21 we conducted 5 investigations in Thai Nguyen province…
Renewed US concerns about Vietnamese adoptions leave American parents in limbo:
The embassy statement… describes a suspicious surge in reports of abandoned babies after U.S. adoptions resumed, especially in the rural provinces of Thai Nguyen and Phu Tho.
… since the American ASPs pulled out of Thai Nguyen, there has been a sharp increase in the number of domestic adoptions in that province.
The last investigation team in this province went to Hospital A, the site of most abandonments in the province… they were told that only the director could discuss adoption cases. Accordingly they requested a meeting with the director. When they arrived at the appointed time, they found the chief of police in the director’s office. The police chief explained… they were not allowed in Thai Nguyen province and asked them to leave.
Today we received from DIA a copy of a letter sent from DOJ Thai Nguyen… The letter is quite clear in stating that officials in the province have been instructed not to discuss adoption cases with the Embassy…they state that any information from private citizens in Thai Nguyen that is collected without a local government official present is considered ‘not objective and incorrect’.
There are currently 11 blocked investigations in Thai Nguyen. All of these cases involve children deserted at medical facilities in the province, primarily Thai Nguyen Hospital A.
The child finder and his wife both told a consular investigating team that they had never found a child and that the story in the child finder statement was a lie.
Cameron Abadi is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @CameronAbadi
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