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Anna Kim Riley, who was born in Daejeon in 1984 and adopted to the United States in 1985, is seen in this photo taken around the time of her adoption. In 2023, she was connected with a woman listed as her birth mother through Korea’s Adoption Central Management System, but a DNA test later confirmed they were not biologically related. Courtesy of Anna Kim Riley

By Hankookilbo

18 June 2025

The Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) unreservedly apologises for the historical forced adoption practices that separated mothers from their babies, and children from their families.

We acknowledge the profound trauma endured by women whose babies were forcibly taken and adopted out, recognising the deep and lasting emotional scars of these unjust practices. We sincerely apologise for the harm caused, honouring their strength and resilience while committing to truth, healing, and remembrance.

Through listening to the stories of people with lived experience we understand and recognise, the profound and continuing harm of these actions, including the deep loss, trauma, disempowerment, and grief experienced by mothers, children, fathers, grandparents, adoptive parents and siblings, families and their descendants.

The AASW recognises that these practices represented serious breaches of human rights and resulted in the loss of family connections, identity and history. We also acknowledge the vital responsibility of the social work profession to uphold and protect human rights in all areas of practice. This means maintaining ethical awareness, fostering critical reflection and challenging practices and systems that risk causing harm.

The historical ensemble near the Arc de Triomphe, designed 125 years ago by the Cantacuzino family to provide shelter for abandoned children and later transformed by the communist regime into an orphanage, will be renamed by the District 1 City Hall "Ecaterina's Cradle".

This will become a campus with the role of a socio-educational hub, structured into two distinct areas: one with open access to the public, intended for interaction and community activities, and another dedicated to therapy and support for vulnerable children and their families.

The initiative is part of a framework cooperation agreement concluded between the District 1 City Hall and the Hope and Homes for Children (HHC) Foundation, valid for a period of five years and approved by the Local Council on May 29.

"Ecaterina's Cradle" - a history marked by the suffering of abandoned children and philanthropy

Founded in 1897 by Irina Cantacuzino in memory of her kidnapped daughter Ecaterina, the ensemble carries the message of an illustration “from a mother without children, for children without a mother”. The main building, designed by architect Ion D. Berindey, is a monument of neo-Romanian architecture, where over time, thousands of orphaned children were cared for, the institution receiving international recognition, including in Geneva in 1927. After 1989, used as a children's institution, the building remained in use until 2003. Currently, it houses offices of the DGASPC and the Civil Status Directorate, which will, however, be relocated to fully return this space to the children and the community .

There are many errors in the adoption information integrated management system.
The Child Rights Protection Center under the Ministry of Health and Welfare
is aware of the management errors, but the inspection results are marked as ‘passed’.
This is one of the causes of corruption in the computerization of adoption records.

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A photo of Anna Kim Riley (40, Korean name Jang Won-sook), who was born in Daejeon in 1984 and adopted to the United States in 1985, at the time of her adoption. Anna met her biological mother in 2023 based on the records of the Child Rights Center’s Integrated Adoption Information Management System (ACMS), but the DNA test results showed that she was not related to Anna. Provided by Anna

Anna Kim Riley (40, Korean name Jang Won-sook), who was born in Daejeon and adopted to the United States, believed she had finally found her biological mother in 2023. In March of that year, she was able to contact her biological mother through the 'Adoption Information Management System (ACMS)' managed by the Child Rights Protection Agency under the Ministry of Health and Welfare. However, a genetic (DNA) test result showed that she was not the biological child.

"Marie (42) was 6 years old when she and her sister ended up in an institution in Croatia in 1988. Two years later, the two girls were adopted by a Belgian family. Since then, she never saw her mother again. Until the beginning of this month, when, with the help of Pieter Goedemé from the non-profit organization Bagage (Baggage), she arranged to meet her in the Croatian city of Zadar."

A system that claimed to act for the child’s welfare instead routinely erased adopted children’s pasts, ignored their birth families and decided their futures for them.

Kim Tak-un was four years old when he was adopted by a Swedish family in 1974. Originally from South Korea, Tak-un had lived with his single father, a labourer who moved frequently for work. One day in the summer of 1974, while staying with his aunt, Tak-un wandered outside and disappeared.

Local police considered him abandoned and referred him to an adoption agency, which arranged his adoption to Sweden within five months. When his father realised his son was missing, he searched everywhere, only to discover – too late – that Tak-un had already been sent overseas. Devastated, he demanded Tak-un’s return. When the adoption agency failed to respond, he went public with the story.

In March 2025, South Korea’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission released initial findings from its investigation into the country’s 72-year-old international adoption programme. The full report is expected in the next few weeks as the investigation is now completed.

Based on more than 360 cases submitted by Korean adoptees from 11 countries, the commission uncovered widespread human rights violations, including falsified documents, lack of parental consent, and cases of child switching – shaking up adoptees and their families.

After separation during the Civil War

After a DNA test confirmed the family connection, New York resident Sarah Kanfer traveled to El Salvador in November 2024 to reunite with her mother, Eusebia Portillo. The reunion is one of several cases in which children were separated from their parents during the Salvadoran civil war and fraudulently given up for adoption to families abroad. Image: Probúsqueda Association.

By Edgardo Ayala (IPS)

HAVANA TIMES – The children who were snatched from their birth families in the middle of El Salvador’s Civil War are now adults. A group of them are now struggling to adapt to a bittersweet process that still moves them: the joy of having found their families again, but also the sadness of knowing half their lives went by, decades of uncertainty, without being together.

By Edgardo Ayala (IPS)

HAVANA TIMES – The children who were snatched from their birth families in the middle of El Salvador’s Civil War are now adults. A group of them are now struggling to adapt to a bittersweet process that still moves them: the joy of having found their families again, but also the sadness of knowing half their lives went by, decades of uncertainty, without being together.

The fathers, mothers, siblings, uncles, aunts, grandparents, and other relatives are experiencing the same emotions. They saw those children disappear one day, ripped out of their homes, often by soldiers involved in an intricate network of human trafficking. Unbeknownst to the families, these children were then put up for adoption through unregulated channels.

During El Salvador’s civil war (1980-1992), hundreds of children who lived with their families in combat zones marked by frequent military operations, were snatched by soldiers under orders from officers who formed part of that trafficking network.

“The children were seen as booty, and a way of making money,” Ana Escalante explained to IPS. She directs the Probusqueda [pro-Search] Association, an organization that has worked since 1994 to investigate cases of children separated from their families in the context of the war and offered up for adoption in foreign countries.

The widow of ex-Home Secretary Lord Brittan, who was falsely accused of being part of a paedophile ring in Westminster, has criticised the decision to drop an investigation into the officer who led an inquiry into the claims.

Lady Brittan said the misconduct proceedings against Met Police officer Steve Rodhouse had been "quietly dropped".

She told BBC's Emma Barnett it showed a "complete lack of professionalism" and that her trust in the Met and the police watchdog that led the investigation had been "severely undermined".

Claims of sex abuse against Lord Brittan were false and made up by a man called Carl Beech - who aside from being a fantasist and a fraudster was himself a paedophile.

An investigation found that in several cases minors were declared dead in order to steal their identities.

From babies declared dead by mistake to parents who never gave their consent, a report commissioned by the Swedish government revealed serious irregularities in international adoptions with countries like Colombia and proposed banning them altogether.

Nearly 60,000 people have been adopted in Sweden from foreign countries , according to the Family Law and Parental Support Authority. The top five countries of origin are South Korea, India, Colombia, China, and Sri Lanka. However, others, such as Chile, also appear on the list.