Abuses in foreign adoptions have not yet been investigated

Research into indications of tampering in international adoptions, including in Belgian archives, has still not been conducted. Last year in June, the House unanimously asked for this.

Domestic adoptees have already been given excuses because unmarried mothers were forced to give up their children. Metis were apologized because the colonial authorities in Congo and Rwanda-Burundi stole children of mixed blood from their native mothers.

The international adoptees, on the other hand, received nothing yet. Yet many suspect that many adoptions abroad have been tampered with. There was therefore enthusiastic applause from the public gallery when MPs approved a resolution last year asking the government to conduct an administrative investigation into abuses in international adoptions. A report on this should be completed by now.

But the government took no action. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hadja Lahbib (MR), there is nothing in the consular archives about international adoptions. She answered this to a question from N-VA MP Ingvild Ingels. “She said her department does not have jurisdiction over international adoptions, which is not correct. She repeated that answer twice, even after a relevant report had surfaced.'

Children tied up

This is a report on adoptions that were carried out from South Korea in the 1970s. Yung Fierens from Antwerp, himself adopted from that country, was able to view it. "It is a thick report, with no less than 80 relevant pages," says Fierens. She previously said in De Morgen what she read in it: children who came to Belgium were tied together on the plane. Some had false identities, taking the place of adopted children who died before their departure. An adoptive couple from Brussels imposed the condition that their 14-year-old adopted child could never marry and would always continue to work in their business.'

The report was an indictment of one adoption agency against another. The Belgian authorities did not take it seriously.

"If something like this comes to light today, there may still be clues to be found," says Ingels. 'We, MPs, ask that independent experts be appointed to search all archives, including those of embassies abroad. A resolution is not binding, but this is about people. Many adoptees are told only that their documents have been lost or gone up in flames. That makes us so angry.'

Kidnapped in Congo

Ingels herself was adopted, after an anonymous birth in France. 'I have also made unsuccessful attempts to find information about my origins. I know how it feels. I don't understand why this is being pushed around so much.'

She also wants to interpellate Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD): 'He is responsible for the recovery legislation that should prevent children from losing Belgian nationality if their adoption is declared invalid. That is now the risk with the five children from Congo who were adopted in our country in 2017, and of whom it turned out shortly afterwards that their parents in Congo had reported them missing. That lawsuit is still ongoing. People sometimes think that adoption fraud is a thing of the past. Nothing is less true.'

On the website of the Critical Adoptees Front Europe, Fierens offers a digital print of birth or arrival announcements from the past. Someone commented: 'She saw the name of her adoptive parents – the adoptive brother she was going to have was sent back because he was disabled.'

Minister Lahbib now promises to report to Parliament by September 15.