Brussels, Belgium (PANA) – A Belgian woman has been jailed for six months in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s capital, Kinshasa, for attempting to illegally send a Congolese girl to Belgium.
The case had made the headlines in Belgium while immigration officers at the airport in Kinshasa had been arrested.
Belgium Minister for Child Aid, Mrs Evelyne Huytebroek, has also asked the Congolese government to check the legality of the adoption of the young Congolese girl who had naturalized in Belgium.
The girl is part of a group of 20 Congolese children adopted by Belgian families after obtaining a double judgment in Kinshasa and Brussels.
Thirteen of them are now Belgians and have been living in Belgium since November 2013. The seven remaining children will soon leave Congo for Belgium accompanied by their new parents.
In the meantime, the Congolese Parliament has issued a moratorium on adoptions until September 2014 pending order in the procedures because of abuses.
Some children were sold at US$15,000 each while others are victims of a double adoption, amongst others, said Mrs Pierette Mwenze, Judicial Counsellor at the DR Congo embassy in Belgium.
Mrs Huytebroek said the case had become so complicated that it can only be solved through the diplomatic channel.
Photo: Tous Congo
