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12 Jul, 2008 14:20

Adoption agencies shut after Russian child dies in U.S.

Moscow has banned three international adoption agencies after a young Russian boy died in the U.S. Two-year-old Dmitry Yakovlev died when his new father left him in a car in hot sun for several hours. The temperature inside the vehicle had reached 50C.

The case has again raised questions in Russia over the already disputed issue of foreign adoption.

On Tuesday, adoptive father Miles Harrison left the child in a car in a car-park while he disappeared for much of the day. With the temperature outside reaching at least 30C, it became stiflingly hot inside the locked car and the boy died.

Harrison was taken to a medical facility in shock and later taken into custody. On Wednesday he was charged with manslaughter and could face up to ten years in prison.

In recent years, there have been more than ten cases of Russian adopted children dying from parental negligence or abuse in the U.S. alone. Following this death three agencies have been banned from operating in Russia.

Svetlana Bakarova, from the Right for Family project, said: “In ten years the Americans have adopted about 70,000 children. Fourteen death cases were reported within this time. In Russia about three thousand children die from family violence every year. But mass media cover the American cases more.”

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