New criminal classification and changed statute of limitations for illegal adoptions

Interpellation 2025/26:67 New crime classification and changed statute of limitations for illegal adoptions

by Lorena Delgado Varas (-)

to Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer (M)

In recent decades, serious shortcomings have been revealed in connection with Sweden's international adoptions. The state's own adoption investigation shows that thousands of children were illegally adopted to Sweden through processes that involved document forgery, bribery, corruption, lack of consent and, in some cases, clear traces of human trafficking.

These are children who have been wrongly registered as orphans, who have been taken from their biological families without legal support, and who have been brought to Sweden with the help of forged documents and insufficient official control. Many of these cases can be considered child trafficking in international legal terminology.

I myself have roots in the Mapuche areas in Chile where many of these adoptions have taken place, and during trips to South Korea in 2023, I have met with representatives of the adoptees' movement as well as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which has just begun its work examining adoptions and child trafficking. The parallels between the countries are striking: authoritarian regimes, structural poverty, racism and weak protection for children and women. Sweden has a special responsibility because our authorities and agencies have actively participated in these adoptions, despite repeated alarms about irregularities from civil society, embassies and the adoptees themselves.

The most serious problem today is that most of these crimes – document forgery, human trafficking, misconduct – have already been statute-barred. Adoptees who begin to seek their truth in adulthood are often met with the message that it is too late to demand accountability. This is a legal and moral disaster. Several adoptee organizations, both in Sweden and internationally, have demanded that the legislation be changed, including by introducing a special crime category for illegal adoption of children and by making such crimes, like certain sexual crimes against children, imprescriptible, i.e. not subject to any statute of limitations.

With reference to this, I would like to ask the following questions to Minister of Justice Gunnar Strömmer:

1. Does the Minister intend to initiate a new criminal classification for illegal adoption of children, which clarifies that it is a punishable crime to adopt children through false documents, corruption or without the consent of biological parents? 
2. Does the Minister intend to advocate for a change in Chapter 35, Section 4 of the Penal Code so that crimes linked to illegal adoptions, such as human trafficking, forgery and gross misconduct, are not subject to the statute of limitations when the crime is committed against children? 
3. What measures does the Minister intend to take to ensure that Sweden takes legal and moral responsibility for the crimes that have occurred in connection with international adoptions to Sweden? 
4. How does the Minister view the possibility of investigating crimes committed in connection with adoptions as part of a larger human rights and children's rights perspective, in line with the work of truth and reconciliation commissions in other countries?