The Marshall Islands government is putting in place plans to stop the growing number of Marshallese children being taken out of the country by Americans for adoption in the United States.
The government says adoption laws will be tightened and that it has set up a Nitijela Adoption Committee to collect statistics on the number of children leaving the country.
Government sources estimate that up to 15 children are taken to Hawaii or the mainland USA for adoption a month.
Josepha Maddison-Hill, a child rights officer within the Internal Affairs Department says parents are solicited by Americans who bribe them to give up their children.
Mrs Maddison-Hill says Marshallese children are targeted for adoption because of the Compact of Free Association which allows them to enter the US without a visa.
Mrs Maddison-Hill says setting up a central adoption agency will eliminate the issue of not knowing where or who the children go to.
"there will be a central adoption authority which will work between the adoptive parents and the government and we are trying to eliminate the third person involved you know the agent. Many children have left the Marshall Islands we really don't have any idea how many children have been adopted out but in the future there will time when there'll be a missing generation in the Marshall islands."
Josepha Maddison -Hill
