Illegally adopted children testify: “How could Belgium let this happen? »

False identities, children torn from their biological families and wrongly qualified as orphans, psychological violence... While the word is freed among adopted children, who have become adults in search of their origins, the Belgian government is slow to recognize their status as victims .Article reserved for subscribersA first photo marked with a number for Yung Fierens (left) and a false name for An Sheela Jacobs (right).A first photo marked with a number for Yung Fierens (left) and a false name for An Sheela Jacobs (right). - Dominique Duchesnes.Charlotte Hutin Testimonials - Journalist at the Society DepartmentBy Charlotte Hutin

Published on 07/18/2023 at 06:00 Reading time: 9 mins

En the hands of An Sheela Jacobs, the photo of a chubby baby with dark skin carried by one of the sisters of the Missionaries of Charity orphanage in Kolkata (India). This little girl, more or less 11 months old, is holding an A4 sheet with a first name written in capital letters: Charmain. A name to which An Sheela never felt "connected", but which she thought was her name from birth until the age of 38. “During a second trip to India, I discovered that the data, which appear on the official documents of my adoption and which were accepted by the judge, are false. I learn that the first name given by my biological parents is Sheela. So I decided to call myself An Sheela. An being the first name given to me by my adoptive parents. »

An Sheela Jacobs I still don't know my exact date of birth, the identity of my biological parents, if they really abandoned me, or if it's just another lie
 

The Dutch government has been too careless in the past with adoptions of foreign children, acknowledges outgoing minister Franc Weerwind (legal protection). "All you can think is: How can I do this better?"

Petra Vissers July 17, 2023

In the spring, Minister Franc Weerwind (D66, legal protection) speaks with a woman adopted from China. Her date of birth? January 1st. Just like countless other Dutch people whose cradle was in China. It is an administrative date, nothing more. She tells the minister that she would like to know when she was really born.

My goodness, Weerwind thinks. A date of birth should be so obvious. “Those kinds of examples make the story hit me very hard,” he reflects on that moment in his office in The Hague. “Those questions… Who are you? When were you born, who are your parents, where are you from?”

'I'm not going to justify it'

In the case where a child is put up for adoption without the consent of the parent, the biological family loses all legal connections and rights to their child. This goes against the advice of research and the Human Rights Court, lawyer Martin Olsgaard says.

Not all children live in a happy home. Sometimes, their situation calls for intervention from the authorities. And in some cases, children are forcibly adopted and permanently removed from their biological families.

In Denmark, the number of latter cases is increasing, Kristeligt Dagblad writes. That means that more and more children lose ties and contact with their biological families.

And that is a bad thing, lawyer Olsgaard believes. For his work, he often meets biological parents who cling to the hope that they can keep in touch with their child who was forcibly adopted. However, in reality, this hope is in vain, Olsgaard points out to Kristeligt Dagblad. All ties between biological children and their parents are severed.

That is very painful for the parents, he says. "Their children can get a new name and social security number", he explains. Also, the adoptive parents have the final say in the matter. "If they say no to contact with the biological family, there will be no contact." And this happens in many cases, the Minister of Social Affairs and Housing confirms.

After Kees van der Spek (59) revealed that participants of 'Spoorloos' in Colombia had been linked to the wrong biological parents, KRO-NCRV called in a detective agency. The investigation shows that there was no malicious intent. Adopted Diego, who did not participate in 'Spoorloos', finds that conclusion rather simplistic, because he is also a victim of Edwin Vela, the controversial fixer of the program.

WARANGAL: The death on Saturday of a six-month-old infant allegedly adopted illegally by a couple from the USA in Hanamkonda has raised several questions.

Kareem Veerani, originally a resident of Kompally in Medchal district near Hyderabad, had married an American citizen Ashama. Since the couple did not have any children they decided to adopt a child. For this purpose, they approached Kareem’s sister Rasheeda Bano, a resident of Warangal City.

Rasheeda got in touch with her friend Rani, who works at a private hospital in Kompally. On the suggestion by Rani, Kareem and Ashama rented a house in Kompally six months ago and started living there.

Rani, along with another hospital staff member Krishnaveni, got a six-month-old male child and gave him to Kareem and Ashama for adoption under Inter-Country Adoption. Kareem also applied to State Adoption Resource Authority (SARA) for adopting the child.

When Kareem and Ashama were taking the child along with them to America two days ago, immigration officials objected saying the couple does not have the No Objection Certificate (NOC) issued by Foreign Adoption Agency (FAA). Immigration authorities also lodged a complaint with the police and child welfare department of Warangal district.

GHAZIABAD: A Pocso court on Thursday sentenced a 30-year-old man to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of a 5-year-old girl he had adopted.
The crime took place in March this year. The convict's wife had adopted the child from a relative a month ago. His accomplice, Neeraj Kumar, was also convicted and sentenced to four years in jail.
 

Special public prosecutor Utkarsh Vats said a woman, Saroj, had filed a police complaint at Tila Mod police station on March 12.
“The woman said her brother’s daughter was adopted by a relative, Ajay Bhati, one month ago. However, she went missing on March 11. The family members launched a search and found her body in a bush on March 12,” she stated in her complaint.

She further said Bhati’s wife had adopted the girl.
“However, Bhati was not happy with this move. He used to thrash the girl,” the complaint further added.

Subsequently, Bhati was arrested on March 14.

Saleem Sheikh, a local and witness in this case, told the court that on March 12, he had seen Bhati carrying something like a body in a bag.
“Neeraj Kumar was also with Ajay Bhati on a motorcycle. They dumped the bag somewhere and returned home. The body of the child was recovered later in the same bag,” he told police.

Panchu Sheikh, another witness, said, “There was a CCTV camera in our office. On March 12, Ajay Bhati and Neeraj visited our office, deleted the footage of their movement, and fled the spot.”

Dr Anil Yadav, who conducted an autopsy on the body, stated in his report that the child had injury marks on her private parts and that she was raped before she was suffocated to death.

However, Bhati told the court that he was framed in this case.

“I had two children: a son (9), and a daughter (6). My wife had adopted this child, and I was taking care of her, too. That day I had gone to my shop while the three children were coming from home to my shop, and the third child went missing. I had informed Saroj about this,” he said.

However, Tendra Pal, special judge, Pocso relied on the testimonies of the witnesses and medical evidence on Thursday and convicted Ajay Bhati and Neeraj Kumar.

“Ajay Bhati is sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment and fined Rs 20,000 under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC and rigorous life imprisonment and fined Rs 20,000 under Section 5/6 of the Pocso Act. Neeraj Kumar is sentenced to four years of imprisonment and fined Rs 2,000 under Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the IPC,” the court said.

(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)

Discussing our personal experiences as Korean adoptees, we noticed that communicating in a language that is not our own can be a barrier . The reality is that today, many organizations offer numerous services to adoptees but to access them you often need to be able to communicate in English.

In terms of communication, we have observed that there is a general lack of sharing of information and news among those responsible for the main associations of French-speaking adoptees. We have also witnessed the propagation and sharing of certain rumors or erroneous information (sometimes even false) on social networks. It is true that South Korea is evolving very quickly in terms of legislative elections, which can make certain procedures more difficult. This also makes it difficult to be aware of all the latest advances and information such as the F4 Visa, access to dual nationality and even the search for biological family to name just a few examples.

Additionally, as many already know, traveling alone in Korea can be complicated. It is for all these reasons that we consider it important that all French-speaking adoptees as well as French-speaking adoptee associations can benefit from the latest information and news, in the same way as if they were on site in South Korea or if they were able to get by in English.

In 2016, I began to take initial steps to begin searching for biological relatives. This process initially involved seeing a therapist with adoption expertise and trying to locate other Indian adoptees who had conducted their root searches. Over the next two years I uncovered stories that showed me which paths I could follow and who out there were leading the way. I quickly realized that, just as I needed a therapist to help me process the emotional complexity of searching, I needed a guide in India too.

For that reason, I started looking for organizations that were seasoned in conducting searches in India. I witnessed second-hand a few searches that other adoptees conducted on their own, oftentimes without even interpreters, and although I applaud their courage, knew I could not do the same myself. I was quite fearful that given the social stigma against having a child out of wedlock that if I were to initiate my search without guidance on how to do so sensitively, I could harm the very people was looking for.

To complicate matters, India, as a country and its central government, let alone each state, did not provide support for returning adoptees to search for their roots, in contrast to some countries with high historical occurrences of intercountry adoption. This means adoptees are on their own to search by themselves or to hire an organization to help them. In my case, I have been fortunate to have access to many records related to my adoption which meant my task was to validate those records, rather than try to gain access to them. This focus meant I was less in need of a lawyer to petition my case to my orphanage or adoption agency and more in need of navigators to help explore the details in the files I already had.

With these items in mind, I settled on negotiating a contract with two organizations that work together, the Adoptees Right Council (ARC) and Against Child Trafficking (ACT). They are, run by Anjali Pawar and Arun Dohle. According to ARC’s website they are focused on “the rights of adult Indian adoptees and searches.” ACT, in contrast, is focused on “the prevention of child trafficking for intercountry adoption. ACT advocates child rights based social policies that are in compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is the universal standard and the best safeguard against child trafficking.”

I have come to believe in the missions of each organization. I belief that intercountry adoption is a version of child trafficking and should be eliminated entirely. I also belief that adoptees need support in searching for their roots if they so choose. In an ideal world this would be funded by the government of both countries involved in the initial adoption. That, however, is not the case, hence the need for organizations like ARC and ACT to step in and provide these services. I wish there were a dozen organizations who were as well equipped and seasoned as ARC and ACT, but there are very few options for Indian adoptees unfortunately.

Shirley Sagin was among those who helped war orphans find loving homes in the U.S. after the Saigon Airlift at the end of the Vietnam War.

There is likely no one in the Greater Philadelphia area who is responsible for finding more loving families for orphaned children, including many who had been considered unadoptable, than Shirley Milner Sagin, 97, who died of Alzheimer's disease June 12 at the Joseph Scott Health Center of Rydal Park in Jenkintown.

Sagin, a revered social worker and adoption specialist who served as the “stork” for hundreds of families throughout the Delaware Valley, raised her own family for two decades in Springfield Township and lived with her husband, Jerome, for 10 years in Wyncote, and then for many years at the Hill House in Chestnut Hill. After that, they lived at the Wesley Enhanced Living at Stapeley facility in Germantown.

Through a long tenure at Jewish Family and Children’s Services (JFCS) of Greater Philadelphia, where she was the director of adoption services for more than two decades, Sagin helped place babies with loving families throughout the region. When Jewish babies available for adoption became scarce, she worked to help other agencies find homes for hard-to-place children.

The Registration of Births and Deaths (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which was passed in both Houses of Parliament during the Monsoon Session, has received the President's assent.

The law will allow the use of a birth certificate as a single document for admission to an education institute, issuance of a driving licence, preparation of a voter list, Aadhaar number, registration of marriage or appointment to a government job.

According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice, President Droupadi Murmu has given assent to the legislation.

The law will help create a national and state-level database of registered births and deaths which eventually would ensure efficient and transparent delivery of public services and social benefits, and digital registration.

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in Lok Sabha that the original Act had not been amended since its inception and to keep pace with the societal change and technological advancements during the period of its operation and to make it more citizen-friendly, there is a need to amend the Act.