‘New rules for adoption do not guarantee a watertight system’

For decades, child theft, child trafficking and other unethical practices were alleged to have occurred when adopting children from abroad. According to researchers, there are no guarantees for a watertight adoption system, but the new system is now being introduced anyway. But that does not mean that the fear of abuses has disappeared.

Adoption has been possible in the Netherlands since 1956. In the peak years, almost 1,700 children came from abroad to the Netherlands, last year there were still fifty.

In recent years, more and more has become known about abuses surrounding intercountry adoption. Documents were forged, women were made pregnant to meet the demand for adopted children and information about identity and origin was deliberately misplaced. The Dutch government is said to have looked away for years.

In 2021, intercountry adoption was therefore completely stopped. This happened after a damning report on the abuses. The investigative committee also wrote that it has “serious doubts as to whether it is possible to design a system in which the observed abuses no longer occur”.

After much research, Stephanie Dong Hee Kim discovered that she was given up for adoption in South Korea, without her own father knowing:

‘It is not about the interests of the adoptive parents’

Numerous examples like Dong Hee Kim’s have come to light in recent years. That is why the number of countries from which one can adopt was limited. Adoption is now only possible from South Africa, Portugal, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Lesotho, Hungary and Bulgaria. There should also be one central mediation organization under government supervision that arranges adoption from abroad. There are now four organizations in the Netherlands that do this. The hope is that one organization can better monitor adoption procedures abroad.

“It’s a half-baked solution,” says Dong Hee Kim. “In these types of cases, where human and children’s rights are so fundamentally violated, any compromise is weak. And ultimately a justification for continuing to violate those rights.”

According to those involved, the new system will never be completely watertight, according to the expertise center in the field of adoption (FIOM). Although there are now more guarantees. “The number of countries has been critically examined. The interests of the child must be leading. A suitable family must be found for the child. The interests of prospective parents are less important,” says director Ellen Giepmans.

Intended parent Irenka Przybylski is still waiting for a baby boy from China. Her adoption had already been arranged on paper before the new rules came into effect. Now that China has been dropped as an adoption country, she is afraid that her adoption will still be refused. “From the moment the match took place, he was my child. That is a kind of primal feeling. Whether he grows up in China or I can bring him home, he remains my son.”

Przybylski has been waiting for four years for the now 7-year-old Kai, who was born with the skin condition albinism. “There are videos where he just calls me mom.”

If Kai could be adopted in his own country, she could be at peace with it. “But these children are not adopted in their own country. Most of the children on the list have been in children’s homes since they were babies.”

According to adopted Dong Hee Kim, the possibility of adoption actually causes overcrowded children’s homes. “It is a demand-driven market: if there is no demand for children, then no system and infrastructure will be set up to supply those children.”

It remains difficult for her to digest that she has lost her father, mother, sisters, brother, language and culture. “I am certainly happy with the life I have built. I have worked hard for it myself. But to me it feels like something I got despite my adoption and not because of my adoption.”