How Swiss couples ordered children from the “Third World”

Sending unwanted offspring abroad, bringing desired children to Switzerland – since the 1950s, Switzerland has been involved in a systematic child transfer.

Shortly :

• Between the 1970s and the early 2000s, around 2,200 children were adopted from India.
• Reports confirm systematic child trafficking and failures of the Swiss authorities.
• Documented irregularities include missing signatures and contradictory information.
• To make their work easier, officials noted “mother unknown” on numerous birth certificates.

Some were found on the streets, others were taken to children's homes by relatives - many were taken away from their mothers immediately after birth.

A good 2200 Indian children were brought from India to Switzerland between the 1970s and the 2000s. They were mostly girls, aged between six months and two years when they arrived. Some of them were given a different name in Switzerland – Melanie, Tanja or Michael – as Swiss and “normal” as possible. Just as their adoptive parents imagined the newly founded nuclear family to be.

The idyll was not always easy to recreate: the new everyday life of the Indian children was full of unfamiliar faces and smells, the language was foreign and the tone they were greeted with was sometimes hostile. They were repeatedly asked: "How much did you cost?", "Where is your real mother?".

Andrea Abraham is a lecturer and professor at the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH). Together with historian Sabine Bitter and ethnologist Rita Kesselring, she investigated the origin stories of children who were placed in the cantons of Zurich and Thurgau between 1973 and 2002. What she discovered is valid far beyond the canton's borders: the Swiss authorities had systematically neglected their duty of supervision - instead of individual cases, we should speak of a systematic transfer of children. A practice that began much earlier than previously assumed. And also went in the opposite direction.

Born in Sin

As early as the 1950s, illegitimate children born in Switzerland or children with foreign parents were placed with wealthy families around the globe by the Private Mother and Child Welfare Service, the Swiss Charitable Women's Association (SGF) and the International Social Service of Switzerland (ISS). 

The so-called "large children's transports" were conceptually reminiscent of the rescue operations of Jewish children during the Second World War. In a letter of recommendation, the ISS set out what had to be taken into account: in particular, placement abroad should be considered if the children had "the characteristics of a different race," it said. In this case, efforts are made to pass the child on to adoptive parents who are also suited to their appearance.

From Home to Abroad

In the 1970s, the social position of single mothers improved and the number of children being given away at home and abroad decreased. However, interest in adoption remained, not least because the number of infertile couples reached record levels throughout Europe.

Because the Swiss authorities allowed the adoption agencies to operate despite evidence of illegal business, numerous organizations and private individuals soon sensed a lucrative business. They joined forces with women's shelters and hospitals in so-called "third world countries" and immediately fulfilled the wishes of a new clientele: financially well-off Swiss couples with an unfulfilled desire to have children.

Within a short time, the "international adoption" business model had become established. If the financial flows were right, the placement agencies found suitable children with the right skin color, gender of choice, and, if necessary, fake documents of origin. The intended parents paid in installments. 6,000 to 20,000 francs for the entire adoption process.

Courts and authorities constructed identities

Until 2002, foreign adoptions were the responsibility of the cantons. When examining adoption documents for Indian children, Abraham and her co-authors found that "irregularities" in processing were the norm. Sometimes residence permits were missing, sometimes personal details were missing, and in none of the cases examined was written consent from the biological parents available. 

On the contrary: many of the official documents were only filled out after the children had arrived in their new homeland. Both Indian authorities and officials from Switzerland were involved in this "wild growth".

"Given the better life chances for the child, it may have seemed legitimate to them to ignore legal requirements," says Andrea Abraham. Especially if the child was a supposed "foundling."

The Missing Mothers

Since 1969, it has been a legal requirement in India that all births must be registered. Despite this, in many birth certificates of those who have been illegally adopted, where there would be space for the biological mother's name, there is simply the word "not known". "Mother unknown".

Andrea Abraham traveled to India in search of the women who were hiding behind "not known". She spent two months there interviewing former employees and cooperators - but was denied access to the biological mothers. The women had a right to forget, the officials told her. Why did the women give their children away? Abraham can only reconstruct their reasons from statements by third parties.

Adoption as a way out of the emergency

For example, she learned the story of Ponni and Sundari: Ponni was raped by her cousin when she was 18. Sundari fell in love with a man from another caste at work. They both became pregnant.

An unwanted pregnancy plunged an unmarried woman in late 20th century India into a serious dilemma. Some of them saw an abortion as the way out, others put their newborn in a garbage can or next to the railway tracks. Still others sought protection in a women's shelter, where they were advised to give the child up for adoption. To protect the family's honor, for financial reasons or simply because they did not know that the separation would be permanent, they agreed.

Today, the mothers of those days are of advanced age – 50, 60, 70 years old. Andrea Abraham knows from former employees of the emergency shelters that for most of them, arranged marriage was the only way to rehabilitation.

The Federal Council "regrets"

The research results of Bitter, Kesselring and Abraham are only one piece of the puzzle of a "big picture". In recent years, numerous reports have been published on illegal adoptions, and those affected have turned to the media and told what it is like to grow up without roots. How many of them there are is still unclear.

As part of an investigation ordered by the Federal Council in 2023, "irregular practices" were reported in more than 10 countries. At the time, the Federal Council expressed its "regret" for the failures and promised financial support to private organizations such as the "Back to the Roots" association, which supports illegally adopted people in their search for their origins. A group of experts is also to clarify by the end of 2024 whether there is a need for reform in the area of ​​international adoption.

Parallels to surrogacy

Meanwhile, the social trend is moving more and more away from adoption, and child exchange across national borders has taken on a different form: surrogacy.

In 2019, the federal government published the only figures to date: At that time, 48 children were registered by surrogate mothers - a high number of unreported cases is to be expected. Because hiring a surrogate mother is prohibited in Switzerland, interested couples have to resort to providers from abroad. These are usually women from the USA, Ukraine, Thailand or India. They charge between 50,000 and 150,000 francs for their services.

This is what opponents of the controversial method of reproduction criticize: the child becomes a commodity, they argue, and because legal and social protection is lacking, exploitation thrives.

Sabine Bitter, Rita Kesselring and Andrea Abraham meanwhile speak of "obvious parallels" between illegal adoption and surrogacy. The hierarchy on which adoptions were once based still exists today: "Parents from the global north want the child to be 'delivered' immediately after birth," and the relationship with the mother is often prevented. In addition to a large-scale review of the abuses that have already been experienced, the researchers are therefore calling for international laws to regulate surrogacy.