Yeah the families of Vietnamese children who are abandoned (deserted) to an orphanage are getting less than 300 USD for their kid from the orphanage. Then they're being shipped over here to exploit the welfare system where the US government gives out thousands of USD each year to families adopting them. Pretty typical scam to run.

Question is, how many of these kids are disappearing and or being abused? And what linkage is there to the overarching assertion?

Summary : Adoption related fraud in Vietnam is a large and growing problem.

The combination of a decentralized administrative system, a legal framework that lacks procedures for oversight and accountability, and an unregulated donation system have combined to produce an adoption system rife with fraud and child selling.

In interviews with consular officers, 75% of parents have stated that they received payment from the orphanage in exchange for placing their child in the orphanage. On average this payment was six million Vietnamese Dong, which is the equivalent of 11 months salary at minimum wage in Vietnam. Throughout Vietnam, officials at orphanages connected with international adoptions report that the number of deserted children has increased by up to 1700% since 2005, the year that the adoption agreement with the United States was signed.

Vietnamese officials have told the Embassy that "these desertions would not occur if the United States stopped issuing visas for the adoption of Vietnamese children."

Embassy investigations have uncovered multiple cases of children being offered for international adoption without their birth parents consent , after the birth parents failed to pay hospital bills for the children.

Despite the documented abuses, the Department of International Adoption has acknowledged that it has not taken any action, criminal or administrative, against any individual or organization for any violation of Vietnamese law or regulation concerning adoption. End Summary