National efforts succeed in decreasing number of abandoned children

An estimated 823 children are living in a care home in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and a total of 53 children in the home were adopted in the last five years, according to the Ulaanbaatar police.

Ts.Munkhbayar said that most families who had decided to give up their children did it because of financial difficulties; nevertheless, he said, the number of abandoned children has now seen a drop.

Police officer T.Bolormaa, who combats crimes against children, suggested that national efforts helped quell this crime, as he said that the penal code has upped the offence of abandoning children to be punishable with up to 12 years in prison should the offence lead to harming the victim.

Nevertheless, some would still argue that the authorities tend to make adoption a hard and complicated procedure.