Biological sisters meet for first time as illegally adopted child reunites with family

There were emotional reunions and long embraces at the airport in Chile’s capital on Sunday 18 February as families met face-to-face with some of the adults who were illegally put up for adoption as children.

Romina Cortés hugged her sister, Maria Hastings, whose existence she learned of just a month ago.

Maria is one of tens of thousands of Chilean children who were trafficked or illegally put up for adoption during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

She now lives in Tampa, Florida.

The illegal adoptions – 20,000 of which are being investigated, according to Chile’s justice system and other social groups – extend back to the 1960s.