Recently our national partners in Ukraine told us just how rampant corruption is with International Ukrainian adoptions. "Facilitators" for legal work are the middle-men for [American] families who want to adopt; they charge families from $30-40,000 per child. The Ukrainian government doesn't charge for adoption, only these middlemen. At the present time you can only go through these "facilitators"—American agencies are connected with facilitators in Ukraine or Russia, and they won't allow those wanting to adopt to go through anyone else. Although what they are doing is illegal, there is no way for the government to control them.
This spring, there was a fourth attempt in Parliament to pass legislation requiring facilitators to officially register [two of our national partners were at the hearing and spoke]. This requirement would allow the government to help control the prices for adoptions while forcing those who help in the adoption process ["facilitators"] to register. The majority of those who sit in Parliament could pass it, but the facilitators make the process look much more complicated than it actually is. There have been three attempts to pass this new legislation but they have failed. If the legislation finally passes, it will be an opportunity for different [legal] facilitators to do the same work at lower prices and the original facilitators will not be able to charge as much...and will lose their lucrative business. An added facet is that government officials know that these facilitators earn a lot of money, and these government officials have low salaries; some of them want kick-backs from the "facilitators."
Please pray that Parliament would finally pass legislation governing adoption facilitators in Ukraine.
