BISHKEK -- A U.S. government official has held talks in Bishkek with Kyrgyz authorities about the fate of 65 Kyrgyz orphans in a delayed process of being adopted by Americans, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports.
Susan Jacobs, the U.S. secretary of state's special adviser for international children's issues, met with acting Kyrgyz Supreme Court Chairwoman Feruza Jamasheva on February 16 to express her concern about the orphans as the adoptions by the U.S. families have not been finalized by Kyrgyz officials.
Jamasheva's spokesman, Baktybek Rysaliev, told RFE/RL on February 17 that Jacobs said the orphans and their American parents-to-be have been waiting for the final bureaucratic steps toward the children's adoption for some three years.
Jacobs told Jamasheva that U.S. authorities will regularly inform Kyrgyz officials about the adopted children's lives in the United States until they reach 18 years of age.
Thirty of the 65 orphans have special health conditions and need regular treatment that is difficult to procure in Kyrgyzstan. Two orphans that were to be adopted in 2008 died while waiting for the adoptions to be finalized.
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