Breaking the law: Danish adoption agency ignored warnings

The adoption agency DIA, which is appointed by the Danish state, has paid support to their representative in Madagascar in violation of the rules, despite raised fingers. Risk of child trafficking, law professor assesses.

For six months, the Danish Appeals Board asked the adoption agency Danish International Adoption (DIA) to tighten up and adjust according to the rules. 

Yet the DIA chose to ignore the pointed fingers and stick to an illegal practice in the African island nation of Madagascar.

This is shown by over 400 pages of correspondence between the Danish Appeals Agency and DIA, which Danwatch has gained insight into.

Specifically, it is about the adoption agency's so-called adoption assistance for a number of orphanages in the poor island state. According to the rules, this kind of financial support must be paid to the Malagasy authorities, but DIA has chosen to give the money to their representative on the island instead, who has bought food and other necessities for the orphanages

That practice is otherwise contrary to DIA's accreditation conditions, which set out the framework and regulatory basis for DIA's work with international adoption.

In November this year, the Danish Appeals Board had enough and gave DIA an official warning . This states that DIA, in connection with their adoption mediation from Madagascar, has acted contrary to the principles of conventions and the Adoption Act.

DIA's flagrant disregard for the rules draws criticism from experts. Professor of social law at the University of Copenhagen, Stine Jørgensen, believes that doubts are created about the payments, and it becomes unclear what is being paid for.

"This means that you create a not very transparent payment structure that benefits the adoption agency. That must never be the case, because then we are talking about the risk of child trafficking", says Stine Jørgensen, who has researched international adoption.

External lecturer in administrative law at Aarhus University Klaus Josefsen is also critical of DIA's disbursement of support funds in Madagascar. According to him, the case leaves "a justified mistrust of DIA as a competent actor in the field". 

"The fact that DIA continues to pay out subsidies in violation of the rules is highly critical and leaves considerable doubt as to whether they manage to carry out the functions and powers that have been assigned to them in relation to international adoptions", says Klaus Josefsen. 

Director of DIA, Kaspar Bro, acknowledges that there has been a mess in the payments: 

"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 Kaspar Bro, who has been deputy director of DIA since 2022, until he took up the position of director on the first of May this year. 

He adds that they have just received the warning and are now deciding which specific measures should be introduced. 

"This is the work we have started, and of course we have full focus on that", says Kaspar Bro. 

Several raised index fingers

Minister of Social Affairs and Housing Pernille Rosenkratz-Thiel stopped all adoptions from Madagascar in May 2023 following a recommendation from the Appeals Board. The 400 documents that Danwatch has been given access to document outline the process that led up to the decision. 

What is adoption-related support work?

Adoption-related aid work is financial support from an adoption organization for projects in a country where children are adopted from. This can include support for orphanages in the form of food, medicine and care for the children.

In 2020, a political decision was made that DIA per 1 January 2022 may only provide donations and aid work if the payments are regulated in the rules of the donor country or are provided to the competent authorities abroad.

Read more about the rules for adoption-related aid work and donations in the accreditation terms. 

Source: The accreditation terms , DIA , Danish Appeals Board

Danwatch has gone through the entire correspondence with a close comb, and for several months the Danish Appeals Board has been asking questions about DIA's work in the big island state, including their payments for adoption-related support work to their own representative in the country. 

As early as September 2022, DIA is made aware that there could be problems in the way they provide support. Here, the Danish Appeals Agency refers to DIA's accreditation conditions, which state that it is only permitted to provide adoption-related support work in countries where DIA can pay the money to the authority responsible for adoptions. 

Two months later – in November – the rules for aid work are brought up again. In an internal report from a meeting between the Board of Appeal and the DIA, it appears that the Board of Appeal is asking whether the DIA has made an agreement with the Malagasy adoption authority ACAM to provide funding through them in the future.

At a meeting in December, the same echo resounds. Just as in November, the internal minutes show that the Danish Appeals Board once again asks DIA whether they have spoken to ACAM with a view to changing their payment of support and correcting it according to the rules. 

Refusing to follow the rules 

Every time, the answers to the Danish Appeals Board are the same. DIA continues to provide support in Madagascar as it has always done.

At the meeting in November, the then director of DIA, Robert Jonasen, said, among other things, that he does not believe that ACAM has the necessary capacity to administer the financial support from DIA. He therefore maintains that the money is paid to their representative in Madagascar and emphasizes at the same time that "it is only a matter of very small amounts". 

DIA has the same approach to the meeting in December. When the Danish Appeals Board asks whether DIA, in connection with their trip to Madagascar, has used the opportunity to make an agreement with ACAM about the support, DIA replies no. 

DIA will, as it sounds in an internal report, continue to pay support to the representative, who then buys food with the money, which she then delivers to ACAM. And this is what they do: In December 2022, DIA pays just over DKK 13,000 to their representative in Madagascar.

Danwatch has submitted the entire process to Stine Jørgensen, professor of social law at the University of Copenhagen, and she does not think that DIA's answer "makes sense". 

"It is completely crazy that DIA believes that the central authority in Madagascar has the resources to handle international adoptions but not to handle the financial support, which DIA itself describes as small amounts", says Stine Jørgensen, referring to the fact that DIA throughout the correspondence insists that adoptions from Madagascar take place on a professionally sound basis. 

They are responsible for adoptions in Denmark

Experts: May have broken the law 

After the closure of Madagascar, the Danish Appeals Board continued to investigate DIA's adoption mediations from the island. From May to November, the DIA is given the opportunity to gather documentation to account for their payments to the representative, but in November the hammer came down with a warning. 

In this, the Danish Appeals Board criticizes that "DIA has paid out support in Madagascar without having knowledge of whether the support was in accordance with DIA's accreditation conditions".

They refer, among other things, to the fact that DIA has paid out support without first contacting the Danish Appeals Board, and that DIA has also not been in dialogue with ACAM about the framework and criteria for the support.

Danwatch has submitted the case to two adoption experts, and in line with the Danish Appeals Board, they assess that DIA has broken the applicable adoption rules.

"It looks as if DIA has broken the Danish adoption legislation and the accreditation conditions they are obliged to follow", says Stine Jørgensen.

Associate professor in administrative law Klaus Josefsen agrees: 

“DIA has acted in violation of the law. That is what it is all about", Klaus Josefsen assesses.  

Risk of child trafficking

Adoption-related aid work, such as financial support for orphanages in countries where international adoption takes place, has long been a controversial practice.

The law has therefore been adapted and tightened several times when it comes to the separation of humanitarian work and adoption mediation. The argument has usually been that there must not be a relationship of dependence between money and adoption, which in the end may resemble child trafficking. To date, however, there are no known cases of child trafficking in connection with adoptions to Denmark.

According to the organization Defense for Children, the humanitarian contribution of adoption agencies can, among other things, result in a child being proposed for international adoption instead of exploring the possibilities of placement in the home country. 

Defense for Children also writes that with adoption-related aid work there is a risk that the countries will become dependent on the income associated with international adoption. A similar concern is expressed by the Danish Appeals Board in a report from 2019.

The report states that this kind of aid work can contribute to artificially maintaining the number of children who are adopted internationally. 

DIA: Reacted too slowly

In an interview with Danwatch, DIA acknowledges that there have been problems in Madagascar. 

"We have reacted too slowly", says director Kaspar Bro, who points out that the process with Madagascar took place under a previous director. 

What do you intend to do to ensure that this (illegal payment of adoption support, ed.) does not happen again?  

"Our collaboration in Madagascar has ended". 

But I also think in relation to other countries? 

“Madagascar was the only country where we have had adoption-related aid work. And it was a mismanagement. We didn't have the framework in place for that". 

Is it being fixed now? 

"We do not do adoption-related work in other countries".

But will a fixed procedure be made for this kind of aid work? 

"This kind of aid work will not be part of DIA's way of working at all anymore".

Danwatch has submitted the criticism to the former director of DIA Robert Jonasen. He does not agree with all of the Danish Appeals Board's assessments, but has no comments on the proceedings.

Expert: The Board of Appeal has slept through the hour 

From September 2022 to March 2023, the Danish Appeals Board and DIA ping-ponged back and forth about whether the adoption work and adoptions from Madagascar follow the conventions and rules to which international adoption is subject. 

According to Klaus Josefsen, the process shows that DIA has been given too long a leash. He believes that the Danish Appeals Authority should have secured documentation much earlier that the payments were made in accordance with the rules. 

"For several months they have been telling the DIA that it is against the rules, but the DIA sticks to their practice. The Danish Appeals Board should have been tougher on them and said now we simply have to see to the matter that this stops", says Klaus Josefsen, "that way the Danish Appeals Board has slept through the hour". 

He adds that the case should give rise to the Danish Appeals Board now looking at the other countries where DIA works to ensure that something similar does not take place.  

Danwatch has submitted the criticism to the Danish Appeals Authority, which refers to their warning on their website. In this, the Appeals Board assesses that "DIA has not documented that the adoption-related aid work in Madagascar is in accordance with DIA's accreditation conditions". 

They also assess that "the payment of support also does not meet the underlying purpose of creating greater transparency and ensuring greater insight and control of these payments at the respective central authorities". 

The Board of Appeal also writes in an email that both the course of the case and the Board of Appeal's actions are clearly described in their recommendation to the ministry and in the Board of Appeal's warning to DIA. 

42 children from Madagascar have been adopted since 2007. 

Correction: Experts assess that DIA's violations could potentially lead to child trafficking. However, there are no known cases of child trafficking in connection with adoptions to Denmark, and this has now been added to the article.

This is how we protect vulnerable sources

• Danwatch is in possession of the specific children's cases, internal emails from DIA and correspondence between the Danish Appeals Agency and DIA, which are all confidential material. For the sake of the children and their families and case handlers at both DIA and the Danish Appeals Authority, we have decided to omit names of persons.
• It is institutions that come under criticism, not named individuals.