Bring Bhagya Home: Parents File Suit Demanding the United States Government Allow Their 12-Year Old Daughter to Come Home From Nepal
WASHINGTON (PRWEB) July 11, 2023 -- With their 12-year old adopted daughter, Bhagya, stuck in Nepal, and her brother, Ben, waiting for his sister to come home, parents Aaron and Emma Skalka filed suit in Federal District Court in the District of Columbia calling upon the United States government to allow Bhagya to come home. The Skalka family has been fighting to bring their adoptive daughter home for eight years — since 2015 when they first met her and 2017, when they formally adopted her.
The family adopted Bhagya, then a five-year old girl, from an orphanage for abandoned children in Nepal. But the United States government put a long-term hold on all adoptions from Nepal, and Bhagya has been suffering and subject to sparse conditions at the orphanage for eight years, the suit alleges.
Her adoptive family in the United States, including her brother Ben, also adopted from Nepal, has been fighting to bring their daughter home since 2015. Their daughter is about to turn 13 years old.
“We love our daughter dearly and visited her multiple times in Nepal. It’s time for the government to allow her to join her brother, Ben, and our family back at home,” said her parents, Aaron and Emma Skalka.
The lawsuit notes that nothing in the Immigration and Nationality Act (“INA”) or regulations permits the suspension of an adoption petition and, in fact, forbids the type of discriminatory treatment Bhagya is facing.
Bhagya’s adoption was formally approved by the Nepalese Ministry of Children and Social Reform in 2017.
But Bhagya is now 12 years old and remains stuck under very challenging conditions, according to the suit. She needs long-term medical care, which is not available in Nepal, as confirmed by the Regional Staff Counsellor for UNICEF in Nepal.
Bhagya remains the only child, adopted by American parents, waiting in a Nepalese orphanage.
The family has filed an amended complaint. The link to the filing is here. A change.org petition urging the U.S. Department of State to adjudicate Bhagya’s adoption petition had now reached more than 800 signatures.
Charlie Perkins, Bring Bhagya Home, http://www.bringbhagyahome.org, 1 917-232-2236, [email protected]
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