The number of children adopted by Belgian parents from foreign countries has plummeted by 50% in 4 years, according to La Derniere Heure on Tuesday. In 2010, 394 international adoptions were recorded in Belgium, but only 213 in 2013. According to Didier Dehou, head of the Central Adoption Authority at the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, this drop is the result of improving conditions in developing countries, as well as the appearance of local middle classes in those countries, who are themselves in a position to adopt.
Furthermore, parents want to adopt young and healthy children, who are becoming harder to find. The other possible explanation is the economic crisis in Belgium.
In Belgium too, adoptions within the same family have skyrocketed in recent years: from 171 children in 2010, to 275 in 2013, 202 of which were in Flanders. These concern mostly lesbian couples, when one member of the couple adopts her partner’s child.
(Source: Belga)
