Questions at the adoption service Het Kleine Mirakel: 'How can the government cooperate with such a service?'

Lotte Debrauwer

There Complaints have been filed against the adoption service Het Kleine Mirakel, including due to negligence in medical examinations.

'What Het Kleine Mirakel had on paper about our daughter's health was completely different from what was ultimately diagnosed in our country. I would have liked to have known that in advance.' Sarah* and her husband Klaas* adopted a girl from Portugal last year. Because the file at Het Kleine Mirakel – medical documents that were present in Portugal – were missing, they filed a complaint at the beginning of this year.

Rare ratio

Sarah and Klaas are not the only ones. Nine families expressed their dissatisfaction with Het Kleine Mirakel, one of the three existing services for adoption abroad, with a complaint or report in the past year. The complaints concern the poor communication of the service, but also about incompleteness in the files of the children and the exertion of pressure on prospective adoptive parents. De Standaard already reported in October 2023 about the complaint of a couple who experienced emotional pressure to adopt a child from Hungary.

Knack

"They take care of your child, so you can't help but be kind. No matter how angry I was sometimes."

Taking the step to the complaints department is not self-evident. For example, there is the story of Caro* and Martijn *, who adopted a son from Hungary at the end of 2023. Caro says that there were no ambiguities in the file or pressure in her procedure, but that mainly false promises and a lack of professionalism at Het Kleine Mirakel took a heavy mental toll. The difficult collaboration has clearly not yet been digested: 'It's a strange relationship', she tells Knack. 'They take care of your child, so you can't do anything but be friendly. No matter how angry I was sometimes.'

It is not self-evident for parents to express concerns to a service that has to mediate an adoption with a country of origin on their behalf. This has not escaped the attention of the outgoing Flemish Minister of Family Hilde Crevits (CD&V). In her new adoption decree (see box), she describes a different role for the adoption service.

Misdiagnoses

For Sarah and Klaas, the service played another central role: Het Kleine Mirakel received the child's file from Portugal and presented it to the couple. It then turned out that there were hardly any medical documents in the file, even though it concerned a girl who needed heavy medical support. The couple found it strange that the doctor from Het Kleine Mirakel based his conclusions on non-medical documents from the institutions where the girl was staying.

A few weeks after arriving in Belgium, Sarah and Klaas got the feeling that something more was going on. They decided to have a brain scan performed. Their suspicions were confirmed: their daughter's diagnoses were a lot more serious than they had been told. They then contacted the authorities in Portugal themselves. They provided all kinds of documents that had never been passed on by Het Kleine Mirakel, including the results of a brain scan and genetic tests that had been performed in Portugal.

They decided to have a brain scan. Their daughter's diagnoses were much more serious than they had been told.

Sarah believes the service acted unethically by not bothering to request the documents. 'They didn't take our financial capacity into account,' she tells Knack.

The couple was shocked to discover that their aftercare report incorrectly included the story of another adoptive family, and that their daughter's diagnoses were incorrectly described. Requests to have a conversation about this fell on deaf ears. Sarah and Klaas are still waiting today for the outcome of their complaint to the complaints department of the Agency for Growing Up.

No expertise

Sarah and Caro's frustrations cannot be seen separately from the chaos that reigns in the adoption world. In December 2023, Minister Crevits announced an adoption pause, which means that no new procedures can be started.

The current files are being followed up by the Flemish Centre for Adoption (VCA). However, because 'the expertise in psychosocial support is not present within the organisation', employees of the three existing adoption services – Het Kleine Mirakel, FIAC-Horizon and Ray of Hope – were temporarily put to work at the VCA to provide this support to families.

"We have a complaint against them, and they have to guide us?"

This causes concern among parents such as Caro, who severed all ties with Het Kleine Mirakel after the adoption: 'I really don't have a good feeling about that.' Sarah is also not happy about the transfer. 'We have a complaint against them, and they have to guide us?' she says indignantly. The Flemish Centre for Adoption assures that it is a defined, independent assignment and that the employees do not have access to, for example, the complaints procedure.

Clear path

A few weeks ago, the issue took a new turn. Following Crevits' new adoption decree, the other two services, Fiac and Ray of Hope, threw in the towel. That decree, approved by the Flemish Parliament in May, wants only one adoption service in the future. It therefore seems that the way is open for Het Kleine Mirakel to obtain the permit.

The fact that the VCA first brought Het Kleine Mirakel 'in-house', and the organization is now given free rein to become the only adoption service, is not met with much understanding from Sarah and Caro: 'How can the government cooperate with such a service?' they say.

Perhaps things will turn out differently after all. The Flemish government included a new provision in its latest decision on adoption that states that a permit can be refused if 'founded complaints' have been made against the service in the past. The stormy times will continue for a while.

Response

Het Kleine Mirakel repeatedly refused to speak to Knack. The service responded to an email listing the most important allegations as follows: 'The complaints in question are malicious and serve a political purpose. They are specifically aimed at putting intercountry adoptions in the Flemish Community in a bad light. We cannot emphasise enough how unjustified and sad this is.'

(*) The real names of the interviewees are known to the editors.

What changes in the new adoption decree?

1. There will be joint preparation for foster care and adoption.

2. There will be one adoption service with an adapted range of tasks: guidance instead of mediation.

3. Cooperation with the sending countries will shift from the adoption service to the Flemish Centre for Adoption and will be monitored more strictly.

4. A non-binding advisory committee examines individual files and makes policy recommendations.

5. Guidance from the adoption service is free of charge.