Family Forum / Parenting / Adoption / March 2005

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/International/story?id=611826&page=1

U.S. Families Learn Truth About Adopted Cambodian Children

Woman at Center of Alleged Baby-Trafficking Ring Talks to '20/20'

- In the first case of its kind, an American adoption facilitator who
helped more than 700 families adopt babies from Cambodia will be sent
to prison on charges related to baby trafficking. In an exclusive
interview with "20/20's" Elizabeth Vargas, Lauryn Galindo talks about
the adoptions she arranged for American families.

Watch Elizabeth Vargas' full report tonight on "20/20" at 10 p.m.

Although self-described humanitarian Galindo pleaded guilty to charges
of visa fraud, money laundering and tax-related felonies in 17 cases,
she says they were merely errors in paperwork and denies having
anything to do with child trafficking.

But the U.S. government and some of the families she worked with paint
a much darker picture of Galindo's activities and their lasting
consequences. Now hundreds of adoptive families are left with agonizing
questions: Were their babies really orphans, or were they purchased
from birth parents too poor to resist a handful of American dollars?
Did Galindo's criminal actions in essence wipe out the true identities
of Cambodian babies, many taken away from extended families, and did
she possibly squander millions of dollars in donations from adoptive
families who thought their contributions would aid Cambodian
orphanages?

By all accounts Galindo went to Cambodia with good intentions. She is
credited with setting up the first U.S. adoptions from the country, and
paving the way for all the adoptions that followed -- thousands more.
Her clients were well-meaning couples who thought that, along with
adding to their families, they were saving true orphans from a terrible
life without hope. In this hourlong expos&eactue;, "20/20's" Vargas
finds shattered families who say that what actually happened was far
less wholesome.

Vargas travels to Cambodia to trace the evidence in a two-year
government investigation. "20/20" chronicles one adopted teen's
wrenching journey back to her birthplace, and discovers another child's
real birth family in a remote mountain town. In far-flung villages and
decrepit city orphanages, "20/20" finds mothers who received money for
their babies, the middlemen who profited, orphanage directors who say
they were paid to lie about a child's true origins, and evidence that
some mothers had been coerced into giving up their babies with false
promises.

"These were manufactured orphans," says Judi Mosely, one of the parents
who adopted an orphan from Cambodia. "They never should have been taken
from their families."

Galindo will now serve 18 months in prison. Cambodia's real orphans
have been left to suffer. Because of the scandal, the United States
issued a moratorium against adoptions from Cambodia and most other
Western countries followed suit. There is considerable debate about
when and how it should be lifted.