How many children are in need of overseas families?
It is a common misconception that children in orphanages are automatically in need of intercountry adoption. In some cases, a child may be temporarily placed in an orphanage because their parents are not able to care for them. In this situation, a parent or relative may remain in contact with the child. In other cases, the responsible authorities in the child’s country of origin may not consider intercountry adoption to be an appropriate alternative for the child. In accordance with the principles of the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, Australia supports efforts of countries of origin to place children through domestic adoption before intercountry adoption is considered. Worldwide, countries are reporting a downturn in the number of intercountry adoptions. This is due to a variety of factors. The number of prospective adoptive parents seeking to adopt healthy infants up to two years of age considerably outnumbers that of children who are identified as in need of overseas fam
