What next, after the end of 'Spoorloos'? 'Don't leave adoptees to their fate'

Now that Spoorloos is ending, the government must make money available for adoptees who are looking for relatives. That is what experts and people involved say. Former editors of the TV program will be questioned in court on Thursday.

Shortly after the adopted Iris Kolthof had heard from a Spoorloos editor that she would be reunited with biological family members, it turned out that the TV program would be taken off the air immediately. That decision followed more than a week after the news, in the Volkskrant of February 12, that the editors had linked Marthainès de Vries to the wrong relatives in Colombia .

After a great deal of commotion about De Vries' heartbreaking story, KRO-NCRV decided to stop showing Spoorloos and to throw out the recordings for the coming season. To prevent De Vries and other victims of a mismatch - officially there are eight - from being confronted with the program again.

Kolthof (32) was informed five minutes before the press release. 'I was shocked. I was supposed to travel to Brazil with a team from Spoorloos in mid-March . I knew they had a DNA match. I would hear the rest there.' To her relief, it turned out that the trip would go ahead as planned, because it had already been set in motion. 'But the reunion will not be filmed or broadcast.'

Top guidance

Kolthof doesn't mind that she won't be on television. 'What I'm angry and sad about is that a program that was of vital importance to me and other adoptees is being wiped out. As a teenager, I recognized myself in interviews, about searching for your identity and origins, uncertainty and feelings of loss and confusion. Thanks to Spoorloos , I felt less lonely.'

Fourteen years ago, at the age of 18, she first contacted the editors. 'They told me that I wasn't ready for a possible reunion. They were right, the guidance was great. That's one of the reasons why I don't understand why they're stopping, no matter how distressing it is that eight others have been linked to the wrong family. It's worked out well more than eight hundred times.

'I am far from the only one who thinks this, Facebook was full of disappointed reactions from adoptees. Spoorloos was for many the first, low-threshold step in their search. It has opened so many doors that would otherwise have remained closed. Where should we go from here?'

Help request

Spoorloos is of course not the only way to find your biological family, explains lawyer Dewi Deijle. She assists adoptees in legal matters. 'The editors have always only handled a limited number of cases. I was adopted myself, from Indonesia. When I wrote them a letter, as a teenager, my request for help was rejected.'

For some countries, such as Bangladesh, there are organizations that help with searches, she says. 'But you can also search yourself, via international DNA databases, social media, and local newspapers and radio stations. It has been shown that this can also lead to success.

'Unfortunately, not everyone can afford a thorough search, and you can't do everything from your desk chair,' says Deijle. According to her, you have to invest money and time in checking official documents, traveling and doing fieldwork in the country of origin, with or without the help of third parties.

Financial compensation

The government should make a budget available for this, she believes. If only because adoptees have Dutch nationality and were brought to our country with the permission of the state, even when it turned out that there was fraud with relinquishment and adoption documents. 'Then you as the Dutch government also have a duty of care.'

She advocates a fund like the one previously set up for victims of violence in youth care . 'If adoptees want to search for their roots in their country of origin, they can receive financial compensation from such a fund.'

Emeritus professor of adoption René Hoksbergen also believes that the government should take responsibility. 'There are still many adoptees, a total of 40 thousand in the Netherlands, who are searching for their identity. This is a vulnerable group, we should not abandon them to their fate.'

He wants the state to reserve 5 million euros for searches for relatives. 'Give that money to Inea, the Expertise Center for Intercountry Adoption . They already offer psychological support; why shouldn't they be able to help search?'

Independent research

Dutch-Colombian Marthainès de Vries has now held KRO-NCRV liable for the consequences of her mismatch. A year ago, five other victims from that country did the same. The lawyers of these five will begin questioning former editors, including presenter Derk Bolt, about the working methods of the editors at the court in Utrecht on Thursday.

The victims call it inevitable that Spoorloos will stop, given the impact of the errors. But they emphasize that the problems have not been solved and call for a large, independent investigation into other searches of the program.

That is also the opinion of Fiona Teggatz of the foundation Buscas tu familia en Colombia, which helped De Vries find her biological family. 'I have heard from dozens of adoptees and adoptive parents that they doubt whether they have been matched to the right family by the editors. Often they do not dare to do anything about it,' she says.

'What if, like Marthainès, they've been in contact with the wrong people for a long time? We need to determine as soon as possible whether those eight official mismatches are the tip of the iceberg. Appoint an independent committee to which former participants can report, which preferably examines all searches. Based on the Spoorloos files that I've seen, I think that much more has gone wrong.'

Exciting

Emeritus professor Hoksbergen suspects that this will work out, but he too is in favor of scientific research: 'Then it will be clear once and for all where we stand.'

Someone who doesn't doubt Spoorloos is Iris Kolthof: 'I just heard from the editors which of my family members are still alive and who I'm going to meet in Brazil next week - I'll keep that to myself for now. It feels very exciting, but also nice. Finally!'