On May 11th Korea marked the 18th anniversary of Adoption Day, intended to raise public awareness about adoption, promote a positive adoption culture, and encourage domestic adoption of children in need while safeguarding their rights and interests. For nearly two decades, the government has attempted to achieve these important goals through the enactment of new policies, but unanticipated barriers have limited their success.

With the longest-running adoption program in the world, Korea sent out more than 200,000 children between 1953 and 2022. Inter-country adoption was devised after the Korean War as a method of rescuing war orphans, but the demand for Korean children increased exponentially in the 1970s, reaching its highest point in the 1980s. In 1985 alone, 8,837 Korean children left for inter-country adoption, amounting to 1.35 percent of live births or more than one in 75 children, the highest rate anywhere in the world.

Inter-country adoptions declined in 2013 by two-thirds from their peak in 2004, due to a shortage of available children. This phenomenon became more salient during the COVID-19 pandemic because nations closed their borders for international travel. In this context, the pandemic functioned as a de facto moratorium on inter-country adoption. Nevertheless, inter-country adoption from Korea increased by nearly five percent from 2019 to 2020, becoming the third-largest source that year.

Inter-country adoption of Korean children has continued alongside alarmingly low fertility rates. According to Statistics Korea, the country's fertility rate fell to 0.78 in 2022 and is expected to keep dropping. A group of children's rights activists and the overseas Korean adoptee community ascribe the perpetuation of inter-country adoption to limited and often absent government interference, profit-driven practices, and powerful agencies influencing policies. However, some scholars (including this author) suggest that it may also stem from the country's collective wariness of differences. Those perceived as a threat to this moral order are thought as being unworthy of public assistance.

Historically, the Korean government seems to have used inter-country adoption programs as a mechanism for social exclusion. First, biracial children― those conceived of temporary relationships between Korean women and American servicemen or U.N. soldiers ― were sent abroad, because they were considered to be "racially contaminated" and thus considered unfit for Korean society. Between the late 1950s and the mid-1970s, close to 4,500 biracial children were sent abroad for adoption.

Gradually, Korean children, mostly born out of wedlock, have been offered for inter-country adoption. Korea underwent rapid industrialization in the 1960s, utilizing a labor force of young single women between the ages of 15 and 25. These women moved to large cities to financially support their families back home while working for exploitative wages. However, a lack of social support, inadequate sex education that emphasized women's chastity, and the financial burden of abortion led them to become unwed mothers, many of whom gave up their babies for adoption.

Lastly, children with disabilities or health challenges are more likely to be offered for inter-country adoption than domestic adoption. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, from 2018-2020, 1,025 infants were adopted domestically, with only 103 of them having a reported health condition. In contrast, during the same period, 852 children were placed for inter-country adoption with 341 of them having health issues. Historically, disability has been viewed as a moral problem, bringing disgrace to the family. Furthermore, these differences often instigate societal fear and discomfort. Therefore, it is considered the best for them to be removed from Korean society through adoption abroad.

Inter-country adoption has persisted in Korea for 70 years. If the government truly wants to terminate inter-country adoption, it needs to identify cultural and social barriers and develop a child welfare system indigenous to and appropriate for Korean culture. The system must recognize children of all backgrounds as relevant to the country and worthy of public assistance. Without this system in place, whenever "unfit" children are born, the Korean government will continue to look for quick solutions outside the country without making substantial efforts to solve them domestically. The result will be a continued legacy of perpetual dependency on inter-country adoption.


Ma Kyung-hee (kyungheem@daum.net) is a researcher and editor specializing in mental health.

The Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans, and Youth Rehabilitation has dismissed  a joint statement from human rights organisations requesting the governments of Cambodia and Italy to cease foreign adoption to avoid a revival of fraud that was common in previous adoption cases.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, four NGOs pleaded with the governments of Italy and Cambodia to halt initiatives that would reopen the international adoption market.

These non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were the Intercountry Adoptee Voices, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, and the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (Licadho).

These civil society organisations say that Cambodia stopped transnational adoption in 2009 after numerous reports of unethical acts related to adoption. Many countries banned adoption from Cambodia during the 2000s. But in recent months, Italy and Cambodia have begun to take steps to resume adoptions from Cambodia.

 Danish authorities helped deprive Greenlandic children of their identity through illegal adoptions before 1979. This is the opinion of a group of adopted children who will now demand compensation and an apology from Denmark.

Margrete Johansen found her biological mother in Greenland at the age of 39. Today, she is one of the adopted children who want to file a lawsuit against the Danish state for illegal adoption from Greenland.
 

There may well be another compensation case on the way against the Danish state. This time from a group of citizens who, as children, were adopted away from Greenlandic parents to Danish couples.

The group currently consists of seven people who want to file a case against Denmark for illegal adoptions from Greenland that took place before home rule was introduced.

New Delhi, Jul 2 (PTI) Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani on Sunday asked child welfare committees to visit child-care homes and review the cases of older children who could be made free for adoption as soon as possible.
    Many children living in child-care homes are not legally free for adoption.
    According to official figures, there are around 66,000 children residing in child-care homes across the country and less than 3,000 of them are legally free for adoption.
    Irani was speaking at a regional symposium on "Child Protection, Safety and Child Welfare" attended by child welfare committee members and officials from child-care institutions among others.
    The Union minister asked the child welfare committees to visit the child-care homes and review the cases of older children who could be made free for adoption at the earliest.
    Irani said the women and child development ministry has already reviewed two states, looked into 9,000 cases of older children and identified 164 such children who could be made legally free for adoption.
    She also asked the child-care homes to look into the infrastructure gaps in their areas and requested the apex child rights body -- the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights -- to review these gaps and present them to the ministry so that these can be brought up in the upcoming budget.
    Irani said the government will build up infrastructure to prevent child trafficking in the border areas.
    An online training module on the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, developed by the ministry in collaboration with the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (Mussoorie), was launched on the iGOT Karmayogi platform.
    The module aims at sensitisation and capacity building of all functionaries who need to be aware of the provisions of child safety, protection and welfare up to the village level.
    Irani also told the child welfare committees that the Centre will build offices for those that do not have one.
    She highlighted how seven lakh children across the country have been aided in nine years of the Modi government with the help of child-care institutions. She said about three lakh children who were declared missing have been reunited with their families in these nine years by District Child Protection Units and police administrations.

OPINION

Imagine this: You are a pre-schooler and through no fault of your own you cannot remain with your family.

You are placed into foster care and the carers are restricted from sharing images of you, including on social media or revealing any of your story. This is to protect your privacy, and to give you agency over your own story, including if, when and how you choose to tell it.

But what happens to those restrictions if, instead of remaining in care, you're adopted? They are no longer in place and your own story is now in the hands of your adopters. Can you see why this scenario could go badly?

Legal changes and global events have given rise to new challenges for the Family Justice System in England and Wales. At Children and Families Across Borders (CFAB) we experience these challenges first-hand in our work with lawyers, social workers, other professionals, and individuals who are navigating the complexities of cross-border cases involving children.

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CFAB was formerly known as ISS-UK, that is, the UK Branch of the International Social Service Network. The Network was established after the Second World War in response to the growing refugee crisis and huge numbers of children who were internationally displaced, giving rise to a need for cross-jurisdictional social work services to ensure their protection. CFAB now has partners in over 130 countries. Our partners include other ISS Network members, Central Authorities, statutory agencies, and charities. Importantly, in response to a rising demand for social work assessments from overseas, more and more of CFAB’s partners are independent social workers.

As children’s global connections change and grow, so too do the legal complexities associated with ensuring their protection and promoting their best interests. In response to this growing legal complexity, CFAB has developed a legal advice service. The service provides support and a range of resources to assist with child protection cases with an international dimension, as well as expert opinions on family law across the globe from our overseas legal partners. Arising out of this expansion, I will outline here some reflections on the legal and practice challenges we encounter at CFAB.

Hanna and Ismael have three children via surrogate mothers: "Very happy"

This is the fifth and final report in a series of five country-specific briefings. It looks at intercountry adoptions from Ethiopia into Ireland between 1987 and 2013.

“How do I tell my daughter that her stepbrother is actually her father?” No, this is not a preview of the season finale of Thuis. It's a question an American woman really asks herself. She asked the 'therapist' of The Atlantic magazine for advice.

Every family has its secrets, but that of this anonymous woman from the United States is very special. In the column 'Dear therapist' she wonders how to tell her now 30-year-old daughter that the man she thinks is her father is actually her grandfather, and that the man she thinks is her stepbrother is, in reality, her real father. Can you still follow?

Actually it is less complex than it seems. When the woman met her husband more than thirty years ago, it quickly became clear that they wanted a child together. The only problem was that the man, who already had two children from a previous relationship, had already had a vasectomy performed. Too long ago to be reversible. And so the couple had to look for a sperm donor.

“We didn't want to use a sperm bank, so we asked my husband's son to be the donor,” the woman writes in her reader's letter. “It seemed like the best solution to us: our child would have my husband's genes and we knew my stepson's health, personality and intelligence. He agreed to help.”

“Our daughter is now 30. My husband and I are anxious, confused and worried about telling her,” she adds. “This is especially difficult for my husband, because he wants our daughter to know that he will always be her father.”

LONDON, United Kingdom — The past few decades have seen an upsurge in the phenomenon of “paper orphaning.” Children are taken illicitly from their birthparents and are falsely presented as orphans by means of fraudulent documentation, rendering the children “legally” adoptable to satisfy the demand for intercountry adoptions. This demand, mainly from couples in developed countries wanting to adopt from the Global South, combined with the adoption fees associated, results in recruiters in sending nations using illicit means to generate a sufficient supply of “adoptable” children, or illegal orphans. According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, illegal intercountry adoption is a human rights issue as the act violates several human rights and has “devastating consequences on the lives and rights of victims.” Intercountry adoption processes must at all times consider the best interests of the child. The Borgen Project spoke to Professor David Smolin, director of Cumberland School of Law’s Center for Children, Law and Ethics on the topic of illegal intercountry adoptions.

False Promises and Financial Incentives

Through coercive tactics such as deception, bribery or even abduction, wily recruiters obtain children from impoverished, vulnerable families and sometimes even pregnant women, a research article by Griffith University law lecturer Kathryn E. van Doore discusses. These recruiters promise better opportunities for the children, such as a good education, and tell parents that they can see them during the holidays. There are further incentives such as financial or other rewards. Many parents, therefore, do not give consent freely but under psychological pressure and/or deception. Sometimes, recruiters take children by force and, in some cases, parents actually pay to relinquish their child.

These children are then legally “adoptable” through the falsification of identities and papers, including falsified birth certificates and death certificates of the parents, and they become “paper orphans.” These incidents have occurred in Nepal, Cambodia, Uganda and Ghana, among others, says Van Doore on a Griffiths University news page.

Paper Orphaning and Poverty