Officials refuse certain foreigners to adopt Cambodian children

PHNOM PENH, The Cambodian government officials have refused foreign single parents, gay parents, low-income parents and parents with two children to adopt Khmer offspring, national media said on Friday.

They made this opposition clear during meetings with representatives from France and U.S. here this month, said English-language daily newspaper the Phnom Penh Post.

This opposition will become an outright ban when a draft law on adoption, currently being reviewed by the Council of Ministers, is approved by the National Assembly, Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, told the newspaper.

The law is expected to pass soon, and will make it legal for Cambodian parents to give up their children for adoption, he said.

Currently, only Cambodian orphans can be adopted.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hor Namhong met with Jean Paul Monchau, the French official responsible for overseeing international adoptions, on Feb. 3 and voiced concern about the potential psychological effects such adoptions have on children, according to a ministry press release.

Ouch Borith, secretary of state at the ministry, also raised the same points during a Monday meeting with Janice Jacobs, the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs at the U.S. State Department, it said.