DRC OKs 47 kids to join Italy families

(ANSA) - Rome, March 17 - The chair of Italy's international adoptions commission said Thursday the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has cleared another 47 adopted children so they can join their new parents in Italy. "We obtained the green light for another 47 children adopted by Italian families," said Silvia Della Monica (PD).
    "This is truly good news. We express great joy and satisfaction".
    On March 8, the DRC authorized 66 adopted children to join their Italian parents.
    Another 14 adopted children were authorized to leave the African country in mid-February.
    In November 2015, the DRC approved the adoptions by foreign families, including Italians, of 69 children after a two-year wait.
    In May 2014, an Italian Air Force jet carrying 31 Congolese children adopted by families in Italy arrived from the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, marking the happy conclusion to a protracted ordeal.
    For eight months, 24 Italian couples had been unable to bring their adopted children home from the DRC despite completing the adoption process, due to lack of final clearance by Congolese authorities.
    The government in Kinshasa in September that year suspended permissions on all international adoptions citing suspected irregularities, but admitted that none of the procedures in question concerned Italy.