Prominent advocates of international adoption are assailing the State Department for its four-year suspension of adoptions from Nepal and have asked Congress to help reverse the policy.
The group leading the campaign, Both Ends Burning, released a report this week challenging the rationale for the suspension and issued an open letter to Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday seeking his help.
The letter contended that the State Department had provided "misinformation" about the extent of adoption fraud in Nepal.
The State Department, which defended its record, imposed the suspension in 2010 after reporting pervasive problems with unreliable documentation in Nepal's adoption system. It said officials had trouble determining whether children being placed for adoption had, in fact, been abandoned and could be considered orphans under U.S. law.
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