Selective sorting in Romanian adoptions

“Three quarters of families who want to adopt a child refuse outright to take Roma children”, regrets Romania liberă, after studying the data published by the National Office of Adoptions for 2012.

The Romanians who get “beyond the prejudices”, like the teacher posing on the daily’s front page alongside her “darker-skinned” daughter, are rather an exception. “Romanians are racist”, openly admits a pastor who has adopted two Roma children.

These prejudices persist due to “deficiencies in education”, Cristina Neacşu, psychologist of the Romanian Office for Adoptions, tells the paper:

[the families who want to adopt] come here with preconceived ideas. We tell them that there's no gene for crime or aggression. Others are afraid that the child up for adoption will be stigmatised.

In 2012, of the 1,222 families who were accepted as prospective adoptive families, 875 stipulated in writing that they wanted only “Romanian children, excluding any other ethnic group”.

“The statistics show that the Romanians prefer to wait for years for the state find a compatible child rather than adopt a Roma minor,” notes România liberă.