Foreign adoption is governed by the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. This convention was ratified into Australian law via the Family Law Act 1975 in December 1998. The convention aims to ensure that international adoption only takes place in the best interests of the child and to provide protection to children and to families against the risk of illegal adoption. adoptions abroad. The process requires a lot of time and patience, with the possibility of several problems occurring; private adoption, forced adoption, kidnapping, sale and trafficking. However, the convention also focuses on preventing these problems. Private adoption is problematic and is only permitted if the adoptive parents have lived in the other country for at least 12 months and the authorities allow the adoptive parents to return the child to Australia. Therefore, there is a risk of ethical issues and the question of whether the child was stolen from the parent; 'The government. reveals ACT couples caught in adoption scams, ABC News