International adoption of Hungarian children on the rise

Budapest, June 14 (MTI) – The number of Hungarian children adopted from overseas has grown by more than 25 percent over the past year, with one in three of closed adoptions in 2015 coming from abroad, daily Magyar Nemzet reported on Tuesday.

Gabriella Mórucz, the director of the Gólyahír Association, an adoption agency, told the paper that one of the reasons why international adoption is on the way up was that Hungarian couples tend to be interested only in adopting babies.

Demand for school-age children, especially Roma or mentally disabled children, is low in Hungary, but couples overseas are interested in them, she said. Most Hungarian children are adopted from Italy.

Despite the rise of overseas adoption, waiting lists are not getting any shorter and normally couples still have to wait years to be able to adopt a baby, the director said.

Government statistics show that 165 of the 507 children who found new homes through closed adoption last year were adopted from abroad.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters