Serbia to Ease Adoption Procedures for Foreigners

Reports from Belgrave indicate that Serbia will soon amend current adoption legislation to ease procedures for the adoption of Serbian orphans by foreigners. You may recall that there was worldwide concern about Serbian orphans both during and immediately following the terrible civil war that shook (the former) Yugoslavia in the 1990s. According to the report, there are approximately 1800 orphans living in 16 orphanages in the country, and statistics show that in recent years, 140 Serbian children have been adopted annually and only 5 by families living outside the country.New legislation is expected to allow adoption of Serbian orphans by families living abroad if the children have not been adopted by Serbian families within one year. This could mean a "registry" system whereby a child's name is placed on a registry when s/he becomes eligible for adoption, and the time frame after which a foreigner may adopt a child is tied to the date when the child's name was put on the registry.