Adoption Agency Under Charge: Assisted in Corruption in Madagascar

Denmark's only adoption agency, DIA, which is funded by the Danish state, has paid Malagasy authorities to facilitate the processing of adoptions to Denmark. Associate professor in administrative law assesses that this is corruption.

A few notes here and a few notes there to the relevant authorities. In poor Madagascar, it is the premise if things are to slide a little easier. 

Now it appears that the adoption system on the African island is not exempt, and that this has also applied to the adoption mediation of children who have been adopted to Denmark. 

Danwatch has spoken to the representative of Danish International Adoptions (DIA) in Madagascar, who says on several occasions that she has paid Malagasy authorities in connection with Danish adoption cases to get the adoptions through. 

“I pay a small amount here and a small amount there. To the administration and to the courtrooms. I also pay the police for their investigations", says the representative when Danwatch calls her.

Submitted to the practice, associate professor in administrative law at Aarhus University Klaus Josefsen considers that this is corruption. 

"In good Danish we are talking about widespread bribery", says Klaus Josefsen, who is also a lawyer specializing in social law and administrative law.

At the same time, he believes that it is an aggravating circumstance that DIA, which is Denmark's only adoption agency, is financed by the Danish state through the Finance Act. In 2023, DIA received DKK 4.5 million in operating support.

"It is a problem that we have an organization to oversee international adoption of the Finance Act, which then contributes to corruption in another country", says Klaus Josefsen

DIA's director Kaspar Bro acknowledges that there have been problems in Madagascar. 

"We have reacted too slowly". 

"For the sake of the children" 

In May this year, Minister of Social Affairs and Housing Pernille Rosenkratz-Theil (S) stopped all adoptions from the eastern state on the recommendation of the Danish Appeals Board. Since then, Danwatch has excavated hundreds of files and spoken to key sources to map the process and what went wrong.

It is not least DIA's payments in connection with specific cases in Madagascar that cause the Danish Appeals Board to call out. In over 400 pages of correspondence between the Danish Appeals Board and DIA, which Danwatch has obtained access to, it appears that there are a large number of sums of money that DIA cannot account for.

On March 30, 2023, the Danish Appeals Board sends, among other things, an email to DIA, in which they note that "DIA's payments to ACAM in specific cases do not agree with Madagascar's legislation, just as it is not defined in more detail what the high expenses are to cover". ACAM is the authority in Madagascar responsible for adoptions. 

But DIA's representative in Madagascar explains to Danwatch that some of the money has gone to pay the Malagasy authorities. 

“I give a little to the courts, the social worker, the police. To everyone who is in contact with an adoption case", says DIA's representative.  

In a subsequent email, the representative confirms again that she must have money out of her pocket when Danish adoption cases have to go through the system in Madagascar. She emphasizes, however, that these are small amounts" and that she "does it for the children". 

“These are small amounts. I work for DIA, and I don't do it for the money, but for all the children in Madagascar", she writes in the email.

They are responsible for adoptions in Denmark

Known issue 

DIA's own representative's explanation agrees with what the Norwegian newspaper VG was able to reveal in October this year. During a reporting trip to the island, several sources told the newspaper that Malagasy police demand money to investigate the background of an adopted child, and that it is quite common to pay the courts to get a case through the court.

"They (the police, ed.) are asking for 10,000 aryary in "petrol money", says the manager of an orphanage via an interpreter to VG, among others. 10,000 aryary corresponds to approximately 15 kroner. 

According to Andrianalisoa Raonison, who works for Transparency International in Madagascar, these kinds of payments are normal practice: 

"It has become standard that you have to pay for public servants to do their work", says Andrianalisoa Raonison to VG. 

VG also writes that the corruption hunters at Transparency International Madagascar report on a culture where the police officers take the money and divide it among themselves.  

Risk of child trafficking 

Despite the extent of corruption in the Malagasy system, first AC Children's Aid and then DIA have continued with adoptions from the island. Only when the Danish Appeals Board questions what the money is used for does an investigation begin. Until then, the DIA otherwise denies that there is anything to put a finger on. 

For example, DIA writes in a letter to the Danish Appeals Board on 20 April this year that they are aware that "Madagascar is placed at the higher end of the corruption index (Transparency International). However, this does not necessarily mean that there is also corruption in the adoption system". 

Professor of social law at the University of Copenhagen, Stine Jørgensen, believes that it is a problem that the DIA has not investigated the conditions in Madagascar more closely. 

"It is my assessment that the DIA is obliged to investigate the circumstances if there is the slightest suspicion that there is money involved in adoption. After all, it's the children's well-being that matters", says Stine Jørgensen. 

According to the organization Defense for Children, corrupt authorities can approve adoption cases without investigating them and, in the worst case, falsify information about a child on purpose. A concern that Stine Jørgensen shares: 

"When you pay money in this way to get a case through, there is a big risk that you create a payment structure where you can make money from adoption. And that must never be the case, because then children become commodities", says Stine Jørgensen. 

DIA: Not good enough 

In November, DIA received an official warning for their adoption agency from Madagascar from the Danish Appeals Board, and it is not least the many fees to the Malagasy authorities that caused the hammer to fall. 

But already in June, Danwatch contacted the DIA to hear how they reacted to the fact that money is paid to Malagasy authorities, which according to experts is corruption and therefore contrary to good adoption practice. We also asked them whether they themselves have investigated the conditions in the island state to find out whether the adoptions take place ethically and legally.

At the time, the reply in an email was that DIA had a long-standing collaboration with the Malagasy central authority ACAM, a good knowledge of the adoption agency in Madagascar, and that they continuously obtain knowledge about their partner countries. 

They also wrote that they “distance themselves from any allegation of complicity in the trafficking of children. DIA is a humanitarian organization that works to ensure the best upbringing for children who do not have the opportunity to grow up in a family in their own country or come from socially disadvantaged backgrounds".  

On the day the warning is published, DIA acknowledges to Danwatch that there have been problems.

"We just have to state that we have not presented the documentation that is necessary in relation to ensuring that these adoptions take place in accordance with the best interests of the children", says director Kaspar Bro, who took up the position on the first of May this year. 

International adoption often takes place from vulnerable countries where there is a risk of corruption. What do you intend to do in the future to avoid being in the same situation as this? 

“It is a challenge that we recognize and that we are looking at. We must now take stock of the situation, and then we must find out how we can solve the problems that exist. It will be a long tough move, but it will hopefully prevent it from happening again. 

Can you be specific about what needs to happen internally? 

We have only just received the warning (from the Danish Appeals Board, ed.), and we must have time to read it down. We must then translate that knowledge into concrete measures. 

Madagascar is one thing, but you still mediate children from countries that have more or less the same vulnerable systems. Can you trust that this won't happen again? 

"There is no doubt that a breach of trust has been created, which we must work intensively to restore. But it is important to remember that in Denmark we have one of the safest systems in the world". 

"You must not accept that"

When the warning from the Danish Appeals Board is dropped, there has been a tug-of-war between DIA and the Danish Appeals Board for several months, with the Danish Appeals Board asking DIA to explain a number of conditions in the East African state.

The many months of communication between the two parties is not only a problem for DIA, but also for the Danish Appeals Board, says associate professor in administrative law at Aarhus University Klaus Josefsen. According to him, the Board of Appeal should have secured documentation much earlier that everything was done according to the book. 

"Seen in light of the fact that DIA has a de facto monopoly on international adoption in Denmark and is supported by the Danish state, this must not happen, and it must not be accepted", says Klaus Josefsen, referring to article five of the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption , which Denmark ratified in 1999.

The convention states that a Danish authority may neither directly nor indirectly use corruption to promote goals abroad.

"When you become aware of, or simply have a suspicion that bribery has been involved in Danish adoption cases from Madagascar, then you should without a doubt have stopped adoptions there already", says Klaus Josefsen, "because this suggests that there has been a widespread practice of corruption, which is not legal”.

Danwatch has submitted the criticism to the Danish Appeals Authority, which refers to their warning on their website. In this, the Danish Appeals Board calls it critical that, among other things, DIA has paid out 'a large number of fees' to various Malagasy authorities without having had sufficient assurance that they have agreed with the rules and the internal fees on the island.

The Appeals Board also writes that DIA has neglected to ensure that 'no undue financial gain is made in connection with adoption mediation'.

They do not wish to respond further to the criticism