'Too soon' for Tsunami adoptions
(CNN) -- Government and aid agencies say it is too early to consider adopting children who may have been orphaned by the tsunami disaster.
"We cannot assume that all the children who cannot find their parents have lost their entire families," says Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF.
"There are parents, aunts, uncles and cousins desperately looking for their children and young relatives," she said.
"Every effort must be made to assist families and children to reunite before adoptions can be considered."
It is estimated that thousands of children may be orphans after tsunamis in the Indian Ocean slammed into coastlines in more than 10 countries on December 26.
But officials caution it may be many months before the children who are actual orphans can be identified -- and even then, they may be taken in by members of their extended families.
"The international standard among adoption professionals in a crisis is to keep children as close to their family members and community as possible," the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
"Staying with relatives in extended family units is recognized as a generally better solution than uprooting then child completely."
Children who are truly orphaned will only be available for international adoption if and when their home countries decide to make them available, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Early reports suggest that children who have been separated from their relatives are being cared for by other adults in their communities, UNICEF said.
The agency is among several working with governments to identify children and reunite them with family members if possible. Indonesian officials and aid workers, for example, began setting up a children's registration system on Tuesday.
