Mongolia – national efforts succeed in decreasing number of abandoned children

Location: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Language: Mongolian

Duration: 00:04:43

Source: A24 subscribers

Restrictions: A24 clients

Dateline: 01/25/2021

Storyline:

An estimated 823 children are living in a care home in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and a total of 53 children in the home were adopted in the last five years, according to the Ulaanbaatar police. Ts.Munkhbayar said that most families who had decided to give up their children did it because of financial difficulties; nevertheless, he said, the number of abandoned children has now seen a drop. Police officer T.Bolormaa, who combats crimes against children, suggested that national efforts helped quell this crime, as he said that the penal code has upped the offence of abandoning children to be punishable with up to 12 years in prison should the offence lead to harming the victim. Nevertheless, some would still argue that the authorities tend to make adoption a hard and complicated procedure.  

Shot Lists:

– (Soundbites) T.Bolormaa, an officer in the Department for Combating Crimes against Children:

“The crime of “abandoning or misleading a child” under Article 16.3 of the Criminal Code was registered with the police last year. Article 16.3 of the Criminal Code stipulates that “a parent or guardian who deliberately abandon a child by evading his or her legal obligation to take care of a child” shall be punished with community service, a fine or put to prison. The law provides for imprisonment of 5 to 12 years in the event of death or serious injury to the victim.”

– (Soundbites) Ts.Munkhbayar, a care and welfare specialist, Ulaanbaatar:

“In fact, in the last five years, 53 children were adopted between 2015 and 2021 thanks to orphanages. There was a widespread percentage of homeless children due to social difficulties. Recently, this trend has changed. The number of homeless children has decreased.”

– (Soundbites) citizen:

“We have a friend. She had been married for many years and had no children. In the end, they decided to adopt a child and turned to the appropriate authorities. However, it took a lot of time because the paperwork required a lot of work. We went together to get some documents. It’s very complicated.”

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