Graduation research into abuses in the intercountry adoption chain

With the entry into force of the revised European Directive on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings ((EU) 2024/1712), illegal adoption has been identified as a new form of human trafficking. The directive does not explain under which circumstances illegal adoption falls under exploitation. In view of the future amendment of the law in the Netherlands, a graduation research was conducted at the EMM on abuses in the intercountry adoption chain and the impact of these abuses on victims.

Interviews with victims

In the graduation research, fifteen victims of abuses in the adoption chain were interviewed. Their adoptions took place between 1975 and 2001. The now adult adopted respondents came across illegal and unethical practices during their search for their adoption history. In the interviews, they tell what they discovered about the events preceding their adoption procedure and the course of the procedure.

Types of abuse

The international adoption chain is vulnerable because it conceals a profitable practice that is prone to abuse. These abuses occur when children are taken away from their biological parents and when these acts are concealed through legal adoption procedures. Respondents say that they were taken away from their biological parent(s) through coercion, bribery, social pressure, deception and abduction. Perpetrators abused the vulnerable position of the biological parent(s), such as poverty, single motherhood, limited access to education or being part of an (ethnic) minority. Then, by falsifying documents, the history of the child and the parent(s) was distorted and concealed.

Supervision is inadequate

The graduation research shows that supervision is inadequate. Abuses occur well before the official adoption procedures, and the Netherlands must rely on the authorities in the country of origin. Dutch supervisors only come into the picture and can only take action in the phase that the illegal adoption has been formalized. They can rely on the limited information in the adoption file and the ignorance that results from this. The Dutch government has set up an external committee to investigate abuses and the involvement of Dutch authorities. In addition to recognition, victims also benefit from finding out information about what exactly went wrong during the procedures.

In the period from February to September 2024, a now graduated master's student in Criminology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam conducted a thesis research at the EMM. The full thesis 'Malpractice in the intercountry adoption chain: A crime script analysis of illegal and unethical adoption practices' can be consulted by the partner organizations of the EMM via the closed digital work environment (DWO) of the EMM and can be requested by other chain partners via the contact form on our website.