From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 3, December 2003.

Now that they are illegal, Tongan adoptions will not  be recognised by other countries.

The Tongan Parliament’s decision to do away with use of the British Civil Liberty Law will hurt some Tongan families who were hoping to emigrate to New Zealand and Australia.

Tonga in the past used the British Civil Liberty Law to cover things like adoption, because Tonga lacks appropriate legislation of its own.

However, the Tongan parliament abolished this access to the British law this year, in a parcel of bills that were designed to silence political critics, because in the past the Civil Liberty Law has also allowed Tongans access to Britain’s extensive Human Rights legislation.

However, among the first casualties of the change will be adopted children, because families who have adopted children will now not be able to get the travel documents that are required by other countries.

Applications for permanent residence visas on the grounds of adoption without legality is neither recognised nor accepted by the Australian or New Zealand Immigration Departments.

With the abolishment of the Civil Liberty Law Tonga now stands without any law to replace it, and the Supreme Court of Tonga has notified the Tongan public that as from October 6 there would be no further issuing of Legal Guardianship.

Adoption in the Tongan way of life comes naturally where an individual raises a child of a relative or a friend without bothering to legally register the child.

However there will be difficulties when Tongans who have become nationals of another country apply for a permanent residence visa for a Tongan child that they claim to have adopted in the Tongan way without any legal registration.

Australia

Matangi Tonga asked the respective Australian and New Zealand Immigration Departments for their views.

Chief Immigration Officer of the Australian High Commission, Esthel Stauffer, said that their Government will not recognise the Tongan way of adoption if that is the ground that a permanent residence visa is being applied upon simply because it is, “not legal”.

She added that the Australian Government has set up a National Policy in regards for an Australian National to adopt a non-national.

“The main reason behind this is to protect the children due to the growing problem of buying of children and trafficking them to other countries that is taking place around the world. The policy on adoption simply is preventing this problem,” she said.

Esthel said that there were also adoption procedures required for the adoptee to meet, and they had to be resident for at least two years in the country of the child’s origin.

Adoption papers firstly have to be submitted to the Family Court of the same country for consideration. After that it could be submitted to a legal adoption agency in Australia.

When both parties finalised and issued the adoption it was therefore declared legal “and becomes recognisable by our immigration if it is being submitted to file for a permanent visa,” said Esthel.

New Zealand

Jen Jeffrey, Chief Immigration Officer of the New Zealand High Commission, said that at present New Zealand would not recognise nor accept an application for a permanent visa if the child had not been legally adopted.

“The adoption has to be legal and we at the Immigration Department need an approval of adoption from New Zealand’s Family Court before accepting and recognising it,” Jen said.

Meanwhile the Supreme Court of Tonga has issued a Notice notifying the Tongan public that as from October 6 there would be no further issuing of Legal Guardianship.

Supreme Court Registrar Manako Vi said this notice was due to the elimination of further usage of the Civil Liberty Law by the Tonga Parliament.

She said that this had severely impacted their work on issues like legal guardianship because Tonga has no law to replace it.

They would have to wait for the Crown Law Department to a new law to replace the Civil Liberty Law, but that would have to wait until at least the next session of parliament, in mid-2004.