Crunch time for Romanian orphan

Iani and Alana Cleland in New Plymouth. She has cared for him since he was 10 months old.

New Zealand woman Alana Cleland is nearing the final stage of a heart-wrenching journey to Romania to try to keep the boy who has become a son to her.

A paediatric nurse at Taranaki Base Hospital, Ms Cleland, 29, is in Budapest, Hungary, to apply for a humanitarian visa to enter Romania.

She met 10-month-old Iani Lingurar when she was working as a volunteer in a Romanian orphanage, cared for him and in May 2003 brought him to New Zealand on a visitor's visa for a family wedding.

She stayed on to begin adoption proceedings through the New Zealand courts and took up full-time foster care for Iani after assurances from Romania officials that she would eventually be able to adopt him formally.

But the Romania Government is demanding Iani goes back, even if that means he must live in an orphanage.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff and New Plymouth Labour MP Harry Duynhoven spoke by telephone with the Romanian Ambassador in Canberra on Thursday to argue Ms Cleland's case.

"It went very, very well, the ambassador was very understanding," Mr Duynhoven said.

"She is a mother herself so she knows what it's like."

Back home in New Plymouth, Ms Cleland's family is waiting anxiously for news.

"It's all just so up in the air, we don't know what reception she will get [in Romania] but we believe it will be friendly," said Ms Cleland's mother Beryl yesterday.

In America, around 210 families have been caught in the same predicament after the Romanian Government banned international adoptions in the face of worldwide criticism of its treatment of orphans.

More than 125,000 children were abandoned during the reign of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu under a "population building" policy. The plight of starving children living in filthy conditions came to light after Ceausescu was toppled in 1989.

Beryl Cleland said Iani had become a typical New Zealand child during his two years here.

"It's shattered us that this is happening. We're the only family he's known and loved. He just loves to be with his uncles and aunties and family." The family were prepared for a long fight if that was what it took to keep Iani here, she said.

"If orphans can have loving family relationships within their own culture, that is of course the best thing ... but why are there still so many thousands of abandoned children and babies still in orphanages?"