'Hurtful to adoptive families' vs. 'couldn't go ahead', mixed reactions to adoption freeze

The ban on adopting children from abroad is causing a lot of commotion among adopted children and adoptive parents. "I think it is a careless decision," says Sander Vlek, advisor at the National Association for Adoptive Families. "I miss the central focus on the interests of the child in this plan."

New adoption procedures are no longer possible since yesterday . Caretaker Minister Weerwind for Legal Protection decided to stop this immediately. Only people who already have an adoption procedure in progress are still eligible.

But adoption from abroad is a measure to protect children, says Vlek. "I miss the evidence that children in countries of origin have a realistic chance of finding a loving family."

At the same time, there are also organizations that applaud the adoption stop, such as International Child Development Initiatives. "The past has shown that abuses cannot be ruled out," says program manager Sarah de Vos of the children's advocacy organization.

Years of discussion

Weerwind's decision is the outcome of years of discussion about adoptions. In 2021, adoption from abroad was temporarily not possible after a damning report on abuses in adoption procedures up to 1998. Minister Weerwind then made adoption from eight countries possible: the Philippines, Hungary, Lesotho, Taiwan, Thailand, South Africa, Bulgaria and Portugal.

The Lower House passed a motion last month , asking the cabinet to come up with a plan "with which intercountry adoption is carefully phased out". New adoption procedures are now no longer possible. After the summer, Weerwind will come up with a plan for the ongoing procedures, although it is possible that the file will have been passed on to his successor by then.

In recent years, the Dutch have adopted fewer and fewer children from abroad, says Ellen Giepmans, director at Fiom, the agency that receives all applications for adoption. In 2019, there were 145 adoptions, last year 50. The majority of those 50 children came from Hungary, Thailand and Taiwan.

Fiom has been receiving "many phone calls from people with questions" since yesterday, says Giepmans. "They want to know what this decision means for them. Current adoption procedures will continue for the time being. Whether these can be completed depends on the phasing-out plan that is expected to be drawn up by the ministry in September 2024." According to Giepmans, it is important that the minister provides more clarity in the plan after the summer.

'Effects of stop unclear'

The National Association for Adoptive Families acknowledges the conclusions of the 2021 report on abuses in adoptions, but does not believe that a halt to adoptions is the solution. "There has been no proper research into the effect of stopping adoptions on children who now live in countries of origin," says Vlek. "Children's homes are harmful to the development of children and adoption can help children recover from that."

Vlek can well imagine that the news to stop adoption from abroad is hurtful for families with adopted children. "There is still an image that it is something that would not be good."

According to International Child Development Initiatives, there are too many bottlenecks in the current adoption system to continue. Adoption from other countries is uncontrollable, says De Vos. "The Netherlands has no authority to check how the adoption came about. As a result, you can never be sure whether it was done correctly."

Moreover, adoption from abroad is "a very expensive system, with which you only reach a very small group of children," says De Vos. "There are millions of children worldwide who cannot grow up with their parents." According to her, the money we are now investing in adoptions could be better invested in the countries of origin. "That way you reach many more children."

De Vos herself is also adopted. As a baby, she came to the Netherlands from Sri Lanka in the 1980s. Although her adoption papers were largely correct and she grew up in a loving adoptive family, she has actively advocated for a stop to adoption in recent years.

Her adoptive parents supported her in this, she says. "Until I was 25, I was completely positive about adoption. After that, I started to look more critically at my own story and the adoption system." She took her adoptive parents with her in that process, which she says was not always easy. "It sometimes evoked feelings, such as anger, but my parents were open to it. They now also think that the adoption system is wrong. You could say that adoptive parents have also been misled in the past."