Muniz Dekker was adopted from the city 26 years ago. From Brazil he came to live in Eenrum when he was two. Now Dekker is looking for his biological parents. He takes us on his quest through vlogs.

Dekker accurately keeps track of all his steps in the search for his biological parents. He makes extensive vlogs about this . Despite being adopted 26 years ago, he started his search and his vlogs last December. And that is not without reason.

'I thought it was too confrontational'

'Eleven months ago I became a father to a daughter and since then my interest has been rekindled. I have worked on it a few times in the past, but that came to nothing and then I stopped looking. I also found it too confronting, not knowing what I would encounter. '

Quest for little daughter

Adoption numbers have fallen over the past year, mainly because of new challenges created by

the pandemic.

“It is not a drastic drop, but it is signicant enough,” says a member of the Integrated Child Protection

Scheme (ICPS), set up by the central government to provide protection for children in difcult

circumstances.

On Monday, February 8, 2021 it is report 'Committee on the investigation of intercountry adoption'published and handed over to Minister of Legal Protection, Sander Dekker. This report is the result of an independent investigation by the 'Committee on the Investigation of Intercountry Adoption in the Past' into the actual course of events surrounding old international adoptions and the role of the Dutch government in this.

What is now known?

Minister Dekker indicates that the Dutch government has failed to act for years by looking away from abuses in international adoptions and not intervening in this. This applies at least for the period 1967-1998.

In the past, the Dutch government has acted too passively in intercountry adoptions, had insufficient supervision of adoption procedures and did not intervene in cases of abuses that came to light. Mediating bodies operating in the Netherlands were also aware of abuses, but did not intervene.

All international adoption procedures will be suspended immediately. This has been decided because the current adoption system still contains vulnerabilities and cannot be controlled sufficiently.

The cabinet will receive the research report on adoption from abroad on Monday. After reporting from the AD on Friday, insiders said that the Commission for the Investigation of Intercountry Adoption, led by Tjibbe Joustra, advises to stop adopting children from abroad altogether. Too many abuses would have come to light to be able to proceed responsibly.

It is not yet certain whether the cabinet will fully adopt the recommendations from the investigation report. According to insiders, this is still being discussed, partly because of the question of whether current proceedings may still be completed.

Dutch officials may have been involved in illegal adoptions from Brazil in the 1970s and 1980s, it was previously known. This was followed by the order from Minister Sander Dekker (Legal Protection) to investigate the case further. Adoptions from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Colombia were also scrutinized.

Dekker did not want to respond on Friday, after the recommendations from the report were leaked. "It is really important that the committee is given the opportunity to present the report with all due care, to show exactly what it contains." The minister found it inappropriate to respond to "such a sensitive topic" on Friday. Prime Minister Mark Rutte also said on Friday that he did not think it wise to respond to the issue.

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The adoption of children from abroad will be suspended immediately. Minister Sander Dekker (Legal Protection) announced this on Monday, in response to a damning report on international adoption in the Netherlands. This also raises the question of whether foreign adoption should be continued in the future.

New applications for adoption from abroad will not be processed for the time being. Parents who have already received permission to bring a child to the Netherlands are allowed to complete the procedure after an additional test.

According to Dekker, the Dutch government has failed to act for years by looking away from abuses during adoptions and not intervening. "It is painful to find that the government has not done what could be expected of it," he said.

According to the minister, for a long time the idea prevailed that parents with adoption were doing 'good'. He called this a well-intentioned but also a somewhat naive sentiment. 'It does offer an explanation for the actions of the government, but no justification.' Dekker apologized on behalf of the government.

Serious wrongs

Following a damning report , the adoption of children from abroad has been suspended . Amsterdam's Dilani Butink (29) took the Dutch state to court last year for 'shoddy' around her adoption and is pleasantly surprised by the decision.

“There were some tears when the report's conclusion came out ,” says Butink. “It feels like a kind of emotional rollercoaster that suddenly explodes. In a positive way."

Butink discovered, during a trip to her native Sri Lanka in 2015, that her adoption papers were incorrect . As a result, she will probably never find her biological parents again. The court in The Hague ruled last year that the Dutch state is not liable for this , because the fraudulent practices surrounding Butink's adoption were time-barred. The court also found it impossible to determine whether there had been illegal adoption. “I found, and still think, that an easy legal solution. They looked away again, ”says Butink.

The latter happened for years, according to a committee headed by former top civil servant Tjibbe Joustra. The committee noted in its conclusions yesterday that there were already signs of adoption abuses as far back as the 1960s. Butink was born thirty years later. “Looking away, I had low expectations of the research. I was positively surprised to learn that the report was so critical. ”

Biological mother

Joy, that was the first reaction of the adopted Dilani Butink when she heard that new adoptions from abroad are being temporarily halted . This was decided in response to a damning research report on the Dutch adoption culture and the role of the government. "I am very happy with the report from the committee and the temporary halt. This just confirms what we have been fighting for all this time, that it has not been in vain."

Dilani Butink was adopted from Sri Lanka in 1992 by Dutch parents. She filed a lawsuit in connection with her adoption procedure, in which, according to her lawyer, serious mistakes were made. Last year, the judge ruled that the case was time-barred , so the court would not deal with the substance of the case. An appeal is still pending.

Butink thinks it must sound crazy to respond happily to such a damning report, but these conclusions make her feel familiar in her grief. "We actually knew what went wrong, but it's nice that it is now being confirmed. And I was shocked to see that things are still not going well."

Mirjam and Doriet also went wrong with their adoption from Indonesia. They later turned out not to be sisters and recently told about this:

31:39

Interest groups of Dutch adoptees are satisfied with the report of the Joustra Committee presented today. That committee concluded that international adoptions as currently organized can no longer take place.

"There have been many abuses in the past, but the adoption system is still susceptible to fraud and abuses continue to this day", said committee chairman Tjibbe Joustra. The government has temporarily halted all adoptions .

Many adoptees have been looking for their biological family for years and encounter all kinds of abuses and shady adoption practices. It is therefore often impossible to find out what the real reason for their adoption was and whether it was legal. For Chamila Seppenwoolde of United Adoptees International, the conclusions are not new: "We have been denouncing abuses for years." She thinks the temporary stop on adoptions should be a permanent one. "Because apologizing means not only saying sorry, but also not going to do it again."

Judy Aubrain of Plan Kiskeya from Haiti supports the conclusions of the Joustra committee and appreciates the government's apologies. "That is a great recognition for many adoptees and families in Haiti," said Aubrain.

It is not the first time that a critical report on adoptions has appeared. In 2016, the Council for the Application of Criminal Law and Youth Protection also came to the conclusion that it would be better to stop international adoptions. Much attention has also been paid in the media to shady adoption practices. Already in 2007 made network a story about stolen children from India. Zembla made several broadcasts about adoption fraud and Nieuwsuur paid attention to shady adoptions a number of times . Since the late 1960s, approximately 40,000 children have come to the Netherlands. In 2019 there were 145, mainly from Hungary and China.

Children who have been trafficked, adoptees introduced to the wrong biological family, distance mothers who have been robbed of their babies: the examples of wrongdoing resulting from international adoption are poignant and legion.

The harsh report that the Joustra Committee presented on Monday leaves little to the idealistic ideas that so often surrounded adoption in the past. According to the research, a 'demand-driven adoption market' has emerged 'in which large amounts of money are involved'. The committee led by former top civil servant Tjibbe Joustra has established that the system 'works like a' money laundering operation 'for children'.

It hardly comes as a surprise after reading all this disaster that the committee advises to limit international adoption completely. It is remarkable that the cabinet announced on Monday, through Minister Sander Dekker (Justice), that it would follow the advice immediately. No new adoption procedures are being started for prospective parents who want to get a child from abroad.

That is a break with the past. When in 2016 a report by the Council for the Application of Criminal Law and Youth Protection advised the government to ban foreign adoption , the criticism was still dissipated. In the past, something may have gone wrong, but for some situations adoption is the only solution, was the reasoning in The Hague at the time.

Loud voice

Joure (6 Feb) - “My adoption is the best thing that happened to me in my life”, says Jaap Jonkers, candidate member of parliament for the CDA from Joure. On Monday (February 8), the Joustra Committee recommended that the adoption of children from abroad be prohibited for the time being because of 'serious abuses' from the past.

Jaap Jonkers (36) explains why he has difficulty with the committee's conclusion: “In 1985 I was abandoned at a children's home in Bolivia. Without my adoption to the Netherlands I would undoubtedly have grown up under the name Pablo in poverty and without parents. By a lot of luck I ended up with loving parents in Hardenberg and I was baptized as Jaap. Without adoption I might not have lived now. "

He realizes that there have been wrongdoing: “I will be the last to deny that. The injustice done to children through illegal practices such as child trafficking is a violation of human rights. That has to stop. The Joustra Committee's investigation will be thorough. I don't want to question that. But I think the proposed measure is very drastic. You say to children like me: You are no longer welcome in our prosperous society. I have great difficulty with that. In addition, you deprive people who have bad luck and who cannot get pregnant biologically in order to become parents. ”

The number 27 of the CDA looks like any Bolivian: “I have always felt welcome and have never felt less fully Dutch because I was born in South America and clearly look like Pablo instead of Jaap. This has never been an issue. In fact, what happened to me in my early childhood is my main motivation to dedicate myself to society and especially to those who did not get those opportunities or for whom fate was less favorable. ”

Jaap Jonkers wants to emphasize with his story that there are also many positive stories. They are now in danger of being underexposed. “My adoption has changed my life so positively that I think this story should also be heard. The reality is that children like Pablo are still being born whom I wish to grow up as Jaap. I represent that voice, since their voice can only be heard once they have become a Jaap. ”