“I am not an object”···70 years of ‘K-adoption’, sending and receiving unjust and illegal children
The country that receives internationally adopted children is the receiving country, and the country that sends them is the sending country. Sending has a stronger meaning of 'mechanically transmitting goods, electricity, radio waves, information, etc.' than 'sending people abroad.' Receiving simply means 'accepting money or goods.' The reason I looked into the meaning again is because of a sentence written by Lee Kyung-eun, the representative of human rights beyond borders, in <A country that abandons its citizens> (Geulhangari).
Lee Kyung-eun, the representative of Borderless Human Rights, says, “International adoption is a transaction that takes place in a market of illegality and injustice.” Reporter Kim Jong-mok
“I am not an object.” “I” am the 15-day-old baby “SK (the initials of his name).” In one chapter of the book, CEO Lee uses the form of a dream to represent SK. SK was almost illegally adopted from Korea to the United States in June 2012. In the process, he was in danger of being sent to a U.S. refugee child detention center. CEO Lee, who was the director of the Child Welfare Policy Division of the Ministry of Health and Welfare at the time, took the lead in repatriation, even going to U.S. courts. It was not an easy task. High-ranking officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs treated SK as “someone involved in illegal activities.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “I don’t know anything about it” until a high-ranking U.S. official contacted him. CEO Lee also dealt with Americans, including employees at the U.S. Embassy in Korea. CEO Lee says, “I suffered so much that I had to trade a tooth.” The book is also an indictment against several public officials in powerful ministries, such as the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The 'SK case' is the only case in which the state has recovered an illegal international adoption (overseas adoption) child. There have been almost no cases of the state recovering 'illegally transferred' children before or after that. The history of international adoption in Korea is one of neglect and indifference despite the prevalence of illegality. In the interview, Representative Lee repeatedly pointed out the problem of the illegal system and the absence of the state that persisted before and after the SK case.
The representative said, “International adoption is a transaction that takes place in an illegal and unfair market.” The illegal market stage of the SK case includes facility managers who encourage adoption and brokers who are after money. “Korea has served as a supply source where Americans can easily obtain healthy and beautiful babies under the age of two,” he said.
The title of the book (A Country That Abandons Its Citizens) contains a sense of problem. “They were born as citizens, but the country is unable to fully take responsibility for their protection and abandons them. They sell children in vulnerable situations overseas. No matter how small a person is, they are still a person.”
Korea illegally created 'orphan registries' long ago and sent them abroad. In this sense, the stigma of being an 'orphan exporting country' is not strictly true. It was an 'illegally created orphan exporting country.' Representative Lee said, "Korea is the country that pioneered the process of making 'orphans' and sending them abroad for easy adoption. Since the 1980s, that system has spread worldwide."
There was no so-called 'humanity' or even the minimum sincerity. The Korean adoption agency even tried to send the three-year-old and six-year-old brothers to different homes in France. The book also includes the story of Hong Se-hwa, a 'Paris Taxi Driver', listening to the story of the brothers as adults. Until recently, there were cases where someone tried to take a baby born in Korea to the US by deceiving others into thinking that they were the ones who gave birth to the baby. Lee said that American diplomats who have worked in consular affairs are familiar with such cases, and that "for a long time, they have thought that these cases should be called 'human trafficking' or 'illegal transfer of a person' rather than 'attempted illegal adoption'." One question Lee received from a judge in a US court in 2012 was, "Doesn't your country have private adoptions?" Private adoptions are adoptions in which the courts do not intervene. Lee accepted that the judge was pointing out that adoptions in Korea are private adoptions decided by private individuals and private agencies.
International adoption is “an international phenomenon involving more than 100 countries, including sending and receiving countries.” Researchers estimate the number of international adoptees to be between 500,000 and 1 million. Korean statistics are relatively accurate. They are the result of a 70-year private adoption system. They sent out 200,000.
What international adoptees and this representative value is ‘identity.’ This representative said that whenever he meets with members of the National Assembly or members of the investigation committee in countries like the US or Denmark to give advice, he says, “The current international adoption system erases people’s identity.”
One category on the English homepage of Borderless Human Rights is titled 'right to origin.' It is the right to find one's identity and roots. Representative Lee said, "The most important human rights issue for international adoptees who have become adults that Borderless Human Rights focuses on is how to restore the right to know their damaged identity."
This representative is an international human rights law researcher. He also conducts research with European researchers, including experts in international law such as international criminal law and EU law. His doctoral thesis, “International Legal Protection of Children’s Rights in International Adoption,” was the first thesis to deal with international adoption at Seoul National University Law School. He supplemented the thesis and published it as an English book, “The Global ‘Orphan’ Adoption System.” This representative says that it has become a must-read for international adoptees from various countries who are trying to find their identity. This is because while there are countless theses and books on international adoption from the perspective of the so-called receiving country, there are almost none that deal with this issue from the sending country.
Lee Kyung-eun, the representative of Human Rights Beyond Borders, conducts various research activities in the so-called 'receiving countries' of Europe. The photo is a book talk on <The Glogal 'Orphan' Adoption System> held in The Hague. ⓒJo Se-young
The representative also told an anecdote that a Brazilian international adoptee he met at Maastricht University of Law in the Netherlands brought a tattered copy of the book and asked for it to be signed. The representative said that even though he does not do individual family searches, international adoptees from countries like China, Sri Lanka, India, and Ethiopia who do not know their circumstances send him related documents or ask for advice. Among them, adoptee rights activists said, “This book is like a weapon in my hand,” because they learned about the problems of the country that sent them away and sold them out. The representative said, “They had only fought with individual cases, such as their own situations. The legal research results in the book confirmed the universal basis for that fight.”
The most common objection I hear when doing this research is, “Isn’t there some people who (international adoption) successful and some who don’t?” Throughout the interview, Lee emphasized that the problem is not individual cases that are successful or not, but a system connected to illegal and unfair markets. “A Danish member of parliament who visited Korea to investigate adoption issues asked to meet with me after the official meeting and said, ‘The adoptive parents I know really raised their children with sincerity and love.’ When I told him that individual cases do not justify this structural injustice, he agreed and left.”
Should we call it 'K-adoption'? Korean adoption officials often say that Korean children are popular among American adoptive parents. People in European 'receiving countries' also say this.
“A European commissioner I met in 2022 said, ‘Adoption from Korea is clean, transparent, and safe.’ That’s the prevailing perception in Western European recipient countries. They think that because the children are well vaccinated, not kidnapped, and government-approved agencies process the paperwork well. In a way, Korea processes international adoptions like a big company.”
International adoption seems to be disappearing, leaving only a painful history. This representative advises several Western European countries’ public investigation committees. Several national committees, including Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands, have investigated the international adoption system. “The discussion about whether Korea will send or not is becoming meaningless. Major governments that already call themselves and boast of being human rights countries have judged that it is dangerous to continue this system. They have concluded or made it official that they will not accept adopted children.” Among the sending countries, China has announced a ban on overseas adoptions in 2024.
Lee Kyung-eun, representative of Borderless Human Rights, explains the significance of the publication of her books, <A Country That Abandons Its Citizens> and <The Glogal 'Orphan' Adoption System>. Reporter Kim Jong-mok
This representative is unique. This is not about a successful civil servant who passed the civil service examination and turned into a researcher. In Korea, there are few people who study international adoption and international law. Even though Korea has sent 200,000 people over 70 years, there are few researchers who look into legal issues. “I guess it’s because it’s research that doesn’t guarantee money, fame, or a position,” he said with a laugh. He said this while reflecting on the original sin of the country that sent the most international adoptees in the world. “Since Korea is the country that has done something that no other country in the world has done, we have to find the answer.”
The representative said that international law such as the Hague Convention on the Protection of Intercountry Adoption is like a mirror. “Many people criticize this convention from today’s perspective, but it is a norm created by the international community after World War II. These laws are like a mirror that reflects us and shows us where we are distorted and what rags we are wearing.” He said that Korea’s 70-year-old “adoption law” is like “air.” “Air completely dominates the people who breathe it. There is definitely something missing from the air we breathe. Or, on the contrary, there may be some toxic ingredients in it. We just don’t feel it properly because we have adapted to it and are living there.” The representative said that adoptees who have lived in other legal systems, such as Western Europe, intuitively sense the problems with Korea’s legal system.
Changing the 'toxic air composition' is difficult. The representative said, "It may take 10 years or 20 years. It may not be possible for our generation to do it. We have to start to find out whether it will take 10 years or 20 years." The representative believes that the starting point is international law research and solidarity among researchers.
Back to the book. The SK incident reminds me of a novel that unfolds in a tense manner. He majored in French literature (Seoul National University). Representative Lee said, “It was such a deep memory that it just came out of my head. I wrote it down as if I was following the navigation. I tried to tell a story. I wrote a book on international law, but only a few people, including experts, read it. In order to have a meaningful influence, I had to write it as a popular book.