Labour and Social Policy Minister Marin Piletic said on Wednesday that the figures for 2022 counter the claims that it is impossible to adopt a child in Croatia or that the procedure takes too much time, but the Ministry will still initiate changes to the law with regard to inter-country adoption.

We ended the year with a 25 percent increase in adoption statistics compared with the record 2021, Piletic said at a news conference a day ahead of the hearing in Zambia where four Croatian couples are facing the charges of attempted child trafficking while they were adopting four children from DR Congo.

Piletic said he thinks that the adoption process in Croatia is well regulated, which is shown by last year’s figure of 190 adoptions. However, he announced the law would still be amended, and in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, a procedure will be launched to establish a clearer legislative framework for inter-country adoption.

131 children adopted from Democratic Republic of Congo

Piletic also said that 131 children had been adopted from the Democratic Republic of Congo to date in Croatia. The couples that are currently in the process of adopting a child are called on to check the legality and authenticity of the adoption documents, and additional checks will in the future be done also by Croatian courts.

The eight Croatian nationals were arrested in Zambia on 7 December on suspicion of human trafficking. Although they had documents for the adoption issued in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambian inspectors suspect they had been forged.

The suspects pleaded not guilty at arraignment on Tuesday. Their defence attorney asked that they be released on bail.

However, the four couples from Croatia are not the only ones that have expressed a desire to adopt children from the Democratic Republic of Congo – there are eight more, said Piletic.

According to the minister, those couples have not gone to DR Congo yet, and they have been contacted by representatives of the social welfare centre, which has provided them with all the available information about the issues that led to the detention of the eight Croatian nationals.

Minister Piletić said that the case from Zambia was not the result of an error of Croatian institutions because all those who want to adopt a child from another country have all possible legal assistance at their disposal at the social welfare centre.