Må bestikke politiet før adopsjoner – VG

IN MARCH, the alarm went off in Denmark.

Last week, France followed suit:

All adoptions from Madagascar had to stop.

Right now, four Norwegian couples are waiting to have a child from the African country.

What happens when a child from there is to be adopted to Norway?

VG went to Madagascar, and can now reveal that:

• The police demand bribes to investigate the adopted children's background.
• Paying money to get a case through in court is quite common.
• The adoption authorities in the country admit that there may be incorrect information in the papers of children who are adopted to other countries.

- We take this very seriously, writes department director Kristin Ugstad Steinrem in Bufdir about VG's findings.

THE LITTLE BOY at the orphanage is only one month old. His mother left him in the hospital right after birth.

Now he clings to the little finger of the woman who feeds him with a baby bottle.

In the cots around him sit four other children under the age of three.

They will all grow up in a completely different place in the world than here in Madagascar, hopes Rahantamahefa, who is the head of the orphanage.

SINCE 2010, 30 adopted children have come from Madagascar to Norway.

According to international laws Norway has committed to, it is only legal to adopt a child if the parents agree to it.

No one should profit unjustly from the adoption.

In Madagascar, it is the police's task to find out whether the parents actually want to give the child away - and that they have not been pressured or paid for it.

The police do not do that job for free.

- They are asking for 10,000 aryary in "petrol money", says the head of the orphanage via an interpreter.

10,000 aryary corresponds to approximately NOK 25.

That sounds like little to a Norwegian, but can amount to up to 40 percent of the daily salary of a police officer in Madagascar.

What the police officers do is take the money and divide it among themselves, according to corruption hunters at Transparency International Madagascar.

- Should you at the orphanage pay for the police investigation when you have so little money?

- That's just how it works here, says the head of the orphanage.

THE RISK OF CORRUPTION should cause the warning lights to light up for everyone involved in adoption.

In the worst case, corrupt authorities can approve adoption cases without investigating them, or even falsify information about a child on purpose, writes the organization Defense for Children .

The Ministry of the Interior in Madagascar, which is the highest police authority, has not responded to VG's inquiries in this matter.

Bufdir is now assessing whether Norway's adoptions from Madagascar are "professionally and ethically sound".

- It took VG three days in Madagascar to find out that the police demand bribes in adoption cases. Why has Bufdir not found this out during the 14 years Norway has adopted from there?

- That the police demand bribes in adoption cases has not been known to us or addressed in the information we have had available, writes department director Kristin Ugstad Steinrem .

Department director Bufdir

She emphasizes that Bufdir followed up on information about the police's work in Madagascar, and asked a number of questions to Adoption Forum before they received renewed permission to adopt from the country in 2021.

The Adoption Forum organizes all adoptions from Madagascar to Norway.

The organization rejects several of VG's findings.

- Adoption Forum will urge caution when it comes to VG's focus on, among other things, financial transactions in international adoption, writes chairman Andrea Mæhlum .

VG has asked Adoption Forum a number of questions.

- Several of the questions give the impression of insufficient knowledge of the adoption field and of social and cultural conditions in the global South, writes Mæhlum.

Adoption forum

Adoption Forum was last in Madagascar in 2018.

They consider the adoption authority in the country to be "competent and serious", says the email to VG.

- IT'S LIKE being in the market, says Andrianalisoa Raonison in Madagascar.

- You need something from a public official, and the person asks for a sum of money to do it. Then you negotiate the price.

She sits in a small office in the capital, Antananarivo, close to her colleagues at Transparency International.

Together they try to expose corruption in Madagascar.

The corruption hunters on the island are working against the odds. The authorities are merciless against those who dare to report, according to Amnesty .

In August, the president's chief of staff was arrested in London, accused of asking for three million kroner in exchange for allowing a British mining company to operate on the African island.

And the corruption does not just happen at the political level. It permeates the entire island, says Raonison:

Do you want help from the police? Then you can expect to pay.

Do the obstetricians find that you must have a caesarean section? Let's see if we can agree on a price first.

Do you have a case in court? If the judge sees that you have money, payment may be required.

- It has become completely standard that you have to pay for public servants to do their job, which you obviously shouldn't have to do, says Raonison.

IS IT EVEN possible to have a child from Madagascar to Norway without someone being bribed on the way?

VG plans to ask the Adoption Forum's representative on the island about that. She is involved in all adoptions to Norway.

But only one hour before the interview appointment, the woman cancels.

She does not answer when VG asks about taking the interview at another time.

Her employer in Norway distances itself from all forms of corruption, they state to VG:

- This has been clearly communicated to our contact person in Madagascar, writes chairman Mæhlum in Adoption Forum.

The chairman rejects that the police on the island demand bribes. The board is well aware of the general problems of corruption in Madagascar, but has never suspected corruption in adoptions.

They receive receipts for all expenses, says Mæhlum.

- Adoption Forum informs all families about the gift culture that exists in Madagascar to show hospitality and gratitude.

- We inform the families that only valuable gifts such as chocolate or a small souvenir should be given.

WHY HAS DENMARK stopped adoptions from Madagascar?

The answers are hidden in 600 pages of meeting minutes and e-mails that VG has obtained access to from the Danish Appeals Board.

One of the reasons is precisely corruption. The Danish authorities are unsure what the money paid to Madagascar actually goes to.

Among other things, they question the fact that 10,000 Danish kroner per adoption has been set aside for "various expenses".

But there are several reasons.

The Danes also worry that the police, medical reports and social welfare reports give conflicting information about children in multiple adoptions.

It is then difficult to say for sure where the child comes from - and to be able to guarantee that the parents actually want to give it up.

If they don't want to, the adoption is illegal.

The Adoption Forum informs VG that, as of now, they have no suspicions of conflicting information in the documents of children who have come to Norway.

But is it possible to trust what is written in official documents in Madagascar?

Corruption hunter Raonison has to laugh when she gets the question. She only needs one word to answer.

- In the.

MALAGASY ministries are not like Norwegian ministries.

In the office of those who work with adoptions in the Ministry of Population, there are two computers for five employees. Both are from 2007.

The rest of the work is done with pen and paper.

- Is there corruption in Madagascar?

- Not in the adoption field, I've never seen that, replies case manager Stephanie Maminirinas in the adoption authority.

- But it is a well-known fact that the police demand payment for, among other things, investigating adoption cases?

- That's how the police work. We cannot tell the police how to do their job.

- But if the police charge, is there someone profiting illegally from the adoptions?

- You must ask the police about that. But I know that there is no corruption here at the adoption authority.

- An adoption must also go through, among other things, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Social Affairs, several rounds of the judiciary and border control in Madagascar. Are you absolutely sure that there is no corruption going on there?

- I do not know.

- But you must know that when it is you who are responsible for the entire process?

- I cannot guarantee other people's actions and behaviour.

After being asked questions about corruption for one hour, the case manager sighs. We go around in circles, she says.

WHAT DOES THE CASE MANAGER THINK is the reason why Denmark has discovered errors in the adoption papers?

- There may be incorrect information in the papers and errors in the police investigation. Perhaps new information has come to light as the case has been investigated.

- But can you then be sure that the information you have is ultimately correct and that no children are adopted away against their parents' wishes?

- Mistakes can happen. If we come across something that is not right, we will investigate the matter again. We work on many cases and will not always pick up all errors. But I think it's rare that mistakes slip through.

VG has also tried to get answers from other Malagasy authorities involved in the adoptions.

Both the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Interior have received questions about corruption within the areas they are responsible for – the judiciary and the police respectively.

None of them have replied.

BUFDIR STATES that VG's findings are new information for them.

- Will Bufdir use this information in the proceedings further?

- Yes, we will take this information into account in the reassessment of the distribution licence, together with all other relevant information, writes department director Steinrem.

- What do you think about the fact that the adoption authority in Madagascar does not rule out corruption in the adoption process?

- Corruption in adoption processes should of course not happen. There shall be no unjustified financial gain from adoptions.

The risk of corruption will be a central topic when Bufdir will now assess whether adoptions from Madagascar should be stopped, Steinrem says.

In September, Bufdir asked the Adoption Forum for an assessment of whether it is "professionally and ethically justifiable" to continue the adoption cooperation with Madagascar, the director of the department states.

Adoption Forum contacted Bufdir twice at the beginning of the year to ask why Denmark and France had closed to adoptions from Madagascar, the organization states to VG.