Tjibbe Joustra about intercountry adoption: biological parent is most forgotten

NEWS

A plan to phase out intercountry adoption within five years was scrapped at the last minute, according to research by the Nederlands Dagblad. Tjibbe Joustra, chairman of the committee that investigated abuses in adoption practice, is surprised about this.

A committee led by Tjibbe Joustra conducted more than a year and a half of research into the practice of intercountry adoption. The conclusions that the former top official presented in February 2021 were clear. Serious abuses occurred in all countries surveyed, such as forgery of documents, child trafficking and child theft. Then-Minister Sander Dekker of Legal Protection immediately pulled the emergency brakes and announced a temporary halt to adoption. A year later, his successor Franc Weerwind decided that adoptions could be resumed, but in a new system and from a limited number of countries.

Joustra and his committee were no longer asked for advice when drawing up this new policy. “No, there has been no contact with us,” he responds. 'I thought that was remarkable. If you have done long research into something, you can also ask such a committee for ideas when making decisions. That is of course not necessary, but from an efficiency point of view it is a good course of action.'

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Joustra could not place all the decisions correctly, and wonders whether the previous minister (VVD member Sander Dekker) had done the same. 'We recommended suspending intercountry adoption in order to create a new system with few private players. That has been partly adopted. But adoption became possible again from a number of countries, which I could not trace based on our report.'

Which countries do you mean? A country like Portugal, or non-Western countries?

'I thought the whole list was special. There must be some logic to it, but it escapes me. It includes countries such as South Africa, Lesotho and Portugal. I find it a difficult combination to explain. We have pointed out that abuses are common to all times and to almost all countries. Add to this the fact that the number of adoptions is now very low. I thought that was more of a reason to make a final decision.'

Until just before Weerwind announced his plans, there was a plan to phase out adoption within five years, we read in ministry documents. Did you expect such a phase-out period?

'Yes, we had already taken an advance on this by recommending suspension. That gives space to think. I would have thought it logical if that thought process had led to phasing out, which of course requires careful handling of the adoptions that are still in the pipeline. The minister could have taken that into account. '