More than ten foreign adopted children rejected just before or after arrival in ten years: “That is traumatic”

Over the past ten years, ten foreign adopted children have been refused just before or after arrival in their adoptive family. Three children from Portugal were sent back, one stayed with another, Dutch family.

More than ten children have had their adoption refused just before or after their arrival in the adoptive family in the past ten years. Of the eight children adopted from Portugal in 2019, one was rehomed in a Dutch family, after which it returned to Portugal. Two Portuguese children who were adopted together in the same year were also removed from their home and then, in consultation with the Portuguese central adoption service, returned to their country of birth. Two years later, another adoption of two children from Portugal was stopped, before the children came to our country, at the request of the adoptive family.

Four children from Ethiopia and three children from India, who had already been assigned to their adoptive families, were also refused. In 2018, one child from Bulgaria came to Flanders via intercountry adoption – that child was placed outside the home. This also happened in 2021 with a child from Thailand, who was rehomed with other candidates from the same adoption service.

It is not about large numbers, but in the past ten years fewer and fewer children were adopted from abroad. In 2008 there were 210, last year 21, or ten times less. And yet just as many children were refused or rehomed as in the first decade of the century.

“Tip of the iceberg”

Minister Hilde Crevits (CD&V) gave these figures in a written answer to Groen politician Celia Groothedde. "Every failed adoption is one too many," says Groothedde. Psychologist Miranda Ntirandekura, who often works with adoptees, also reacted with shock to the figures. She wondered in particular what happened to the children who were sent back to their country of origin, such as the three Portuguese children: "That is traumatic. What guidance and aftercare did our country give to those children?"

The therapist also suspects that this is just the “tip of the iceberg”. “I know adopted teenagers who still live at home, but are still supervised by myself and a psychiatrist. I know some who go from admission to admission in psychiatry, which you could also call a form of out-of-home placement. Some are in boarding school during the week, because the adoptive parents can only bridge the weekend. You don’t see all that in those figures”, says Ntirandekura.

Crevits herself puts things into perspective and says that there are “very few” failed adoptions, and points out that the reasons for premature termination of adoption vary. But she also acknowledges that it can be “precarious” for adoption services to make the best possible assessment in advance: “Certainly in the case of children who need specific care. The services have already responded to this by monitoring families more intensively, but in the interest of the child we must err on the side of caution in every situation.”

In recent years, adoption services have focused more on children with special needs , for whom no family could be found in their own country. The term covers many things: children with a disability, as well as brothers and sisters who are adopted together, or children aged five and older.

Today, there is still a freeze on intercountry adoption , pending the implementation of the new decree on intercountry adoption, which was approved by the Flemish Parliament on 8 May. The minister has also asked the Adoption Support Centre to develop a proposal for psychological support for adoptive families and adoptees. “That plan will have to be translated into concrete decisions and an approach on the ground by the next government. I am aware that a budget will be needed for that.”