Denmark’s international adoption agency, DIA, has announced that it is ceasing to facilitate adoptions from abroad for Danes. The Norwegian government has also called for a two-year hiatus on the practice to investigate allegations of fraud and human trafficking.
“Adoptions must be safe, sound and in the best interest of the child,” Hege Nilssen, head of the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training, said in a statement. “Our assessment is that the risk of illegalities is real, and that it is at a level which means that we recommend a temporary halt until the committee delivers its report and makes recommendations on what a possible future adoption system should look like.”
The decision in Denmark was made by the country’s adoption agency. Since Danish International Adoptions is the country’s sole agency accredited for carrying out this service, this means international adoptions in Denmark have completely stopped. At the moment, there is no timeline for adoptions to resume.
The move comes on the heels of revelations of possible fraud and human trafficking in adoptions facilitated by the agency. Several cases came before Denmark’s National Board of Appeal recently and the agency failed to satisfy the oversight board that it could ensure child safety in adoption.
Last June, Denmark suspended adoptions from Madagascar after the National Board of Appeals cited a case where it was unclear that a minor mother had given proper consent for her child to be adopted. In another case, people in the country seemed to have profited from an adoption. Under international law, no one is allowed to profit from adoption. Then followed another case in South Africa, where the board found that DIA knew the South African partner was violating adoption rules.
The organization Against Child Trafficking has said it is following developments in the cases closely and warns that human trafficking is a constant problem in international adoption.
“Again and again we see the same pattern—and it is not just in Denmark, but in many places in the world,” Arun Dohle, director of Against Child Trafficking said.
“We strongly urge Denmark to conduct an in-depth and impartial study of all countries as Norway has decided to do,” Dohle added.
New reports have also revealed historic, systemic fraud in international adoptions with Danish agencies complicit in the crimes. The National Review Board recently released a report showing that in the 1970s and 80s, the identities of children from South Korea were changed before they were adopted by Danes. Cases included a woman who had been kidnapped from her mother shortly after birth. The Danish news site Danmarks Radio (DR) also published a documentary on adoptions from India showing that many children were given away in adoption without their parent’s consent and siblings were adopted into different families.
Mette Thiesen of the Danish People’s Party reacted to the revelations:
As a mother, it cuts deep into my heart that some parents have had their children taken from them, and the children have not known that they were wrongfully taken from their parents.
