Adoptive families against the authorities and VG: − One-sided presentation

It will be a "huge disclaimer" if Norway stops adoptions from abroad, several adoptive families believe.

The short version

• Adoptive families believe it will be a "huge disclaimer" if Norway stops adoptions from abroad
• Five families also criticize VG's adoption coverage for being one-sided.
• Sissel Kruse Larsen, who has adopted a daughter from Peru, believes that a temporary halt to adoptions to Norway will have major consequences for children.

- From one day to the next, families have their lives turned around by the Norwegian authorities, says Øyvind Bakke Reier to VG.

He speaks on behalf of five families who are waiting to adopt children from abroad.

The families wish to remain anonymous because they are in a vulnerable situation. They have therefore asked Bakke Reier to speak their case.

- It came as a shock to them to read in VG that the authorities are considering stopping all adoptions from abroad. They are in despair, says Bakke Reier.

The three Norwegian adoption associations received notice from Bufdir about the possible temporary suspension half an hour before VG published its case. As a result, they did not have time to notify their members.

- It is a violent, even life-changing, message to receive. They should have read that in VG first.

- Why does it matter if they get a message from the authorities or VG? The message would be the same anyway?

- If they knew about it in advance, they could choose how their loved ones would find out about it. Instead, they may find that they are flooded with questions to which they have no answers, about what is happening now.

Criticizes VG

The families in question have sent a letter to the Norwegian authorities in which they ask Bufdir and Minister of State Kjersti Toppe to consider the alternatives to a halt to foreign adoptions.

In the letter, they also criticize VG's coverage of foreign adoptions in the past year.

"VG's one-sided presentation of negative individual stories related to foreign adoption can hardly do anything other than contribute to discrediting all foreign adoption", it says.

- The impression that has been created is that all adoptions are illegal. But that's not true. We must remember that international adoptions are something that a unanimous Storting has said we should allow in this country, says Bakke Reier.

The families he speaks for experience that the politicians "jump on" what comes out in the media.

- It seems as if they are only interested in showing action. Now they are speaking out too harshly on too thin a basis, says Bakke Reier.

Bakke Reier points out that there are a large number of children living in orphanages in the world.

- And here in Norway there are families who want and have the capacity to take them in. Then it will not be in the best interests of the children if Norway stops all adoptions abroad. It is premature to consider closure now.

- Waiting for a life without a family

Sissel Kruse Larsen, who has adopted a daughter from Peru, is also critical of the authorities considering a shutdown now.

- This is about the best interests of children. It would be an enormous disclaimer of responsibility from the Norwegian authorities to stop adoptions from countries where we have no suspicion that anything illegal is happening, she tells VG.

Larsen emphasizes that she has no vested interest in the adoptions continuing - she and her husband Kristian Mykleset have no plans to adopt more children, after they adopted a girl from Peru earlier this year.

- Having seen for myself how children fare in orphanages, I am completely convinced that even a temporary stop will have major consequences. By then, the children living there will have reached such an age that it is very unlikely that they can be adopted. In that case, a life without a family awaits.

Larsen emphasizes that she is not criticizing the media coverage of the past year, but that the important thing is that the authorities react to the revelations in a sensible way.

Larsen and her husband wrote a column in VG on Tuesday about adoptions:

Debate: Injustice is not corrected if more children have to suffer

- Haven't been there myself for over ten years

In the letter to the authorities, the families that Bakke Reier is speaking on behalf of write that they have "been through years of effort to fulfill the dream of having children".

- But if the authorities realize that they are not sure whether adopted children come legally or illegally, shouldn't they stop then?

- The problem is that they do it based on second-hand knowledge. Now Bufdir has just closed adoptions from Madagascar, but it is based on information from Denmark and the UN. They haven't been there themselves in over ten years. The authorities should not make such sweeping decisions without having checked thoroughly themselves.

Department director Kristin Ugstad Steinrem in Bufdir writes in an e-mail to VG that she understands that it is difficult to get the message about a possible temporary halt to adoptions in the media.

However, she rejects that the authorities "jump on" criticism that comes in the media.

- It is not the case that it is the media image that controls the priorities and assessments of Bufdir, writes Steinrem.

She explains this, among other things, by the fact that Bufdir already this summer started work on considering a temporary halt to adoptions. In addition, she points out that the directorate began the reassessment of whether Norway should allow adoptions from Madagascar in August - months before VG published its disclosure from there .