Ethiopian Adoptee Wins Legal Case to Revoke Adoption (VOA)
An Ethiopian court has revoked the adoption of a girl by a family in the Netherlands. This is the first time a foreign adoption has been revoked in Ethiopia\’s long history of overseas adoption.
Betty Lub is a 14-year-old Ethiopian girl that was adopted at the age of seven by a Dutch family that abused her. She stayed with them for two years, but still carries their last name because of legal procedures.
Betty got the adoption revoked through an Ethiopian court. Her lawyer, Mulemebet Tilahua, said Betty now wants to change her name to Betty Demoze, her Ethiopian last name.
\”Revocation of the adoption contract will have an effect on Betty and in a way she will be reinstated to her family of origins. And the other thing is, she will not be forced to be called after the adoptive parents who abused her in their home for a long time,\” said Tilahua.
Falsified documents
The documents in Betty\’s adoption file were falsified and were full of errors. They gave the wrong age, and wrongly stated that Betty\’s parents had died. After a failed criminal case two years ago against those involved with providing the papers, the 14-year-old started a civil case.
Betty said that getting her adoption revoked in Ethiopia is only the first step of her journey.