Sweden to End Foreign Adoptions After Investigation Exposes Abuses

A Swedish commission on Monday called for a ban on international adoptions after an inquiry exposed a series of abuses and fraud dating back decades, including the abduction and trafficking of children, Deutsche Welle reported. 

The investigation started in 2021 following a report by Swedish newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, that shed light on serious problems in the country’s international adoption system and found cases of “stolen children” from countries such as South Korea, China, Sri Lanka, and Chile, according to Euronews. 

The probe showed “significant and systemic gaps” in the paperwork of international adoptions, including fake records about birth dates, parentage, and adoption circumstances. It revealed that thousands of children were adopted in Sweden without parental consent, after being falsely declared dead or put up for adoption by individuals who were not their legal guardians.  

Anna Singer, the head of the Swedish Adoption Commission, said that other times parents agreed to the adoption without fully understanding the implications of it. 

Investigators confirmed irregularities in every decade from the 1970s to the 2000s, and Singer said the government had been aware of these problems “very early on.” 

Besides the ban, the commission recommends that the government acknowledge the violations of human rights that have happened, formally apologize to the people involved, and introduce long-term support for adoptees and their families. 

Cases where children have been illegally taken away from their parents and sent to Western countries to supply the demand for adopted children have been exposed in many countries, particularly South Korea, which has sent about 200,000 children to the West in the past 60 years, the Associated Press noted. 

Among the countries that are closing or reviewing their international adoption programs because of ethical concerns are the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and the Belgian region of Flanders.