Adoptive parents Chantal and Dirk-Jan deeply touched by critical report: 'We are not child traffickers'

"In our case, adoption is not shady. There was no question of child trafficking and misery." Chantal and Dirk-Jan de Boer have to defend themselves for the adoption of their son after Joustra's hard report about abuses in adoption in the past.

Chantal and Dirk-Jan from Eagum in Friesland have just received permission for the adoption of a second child from the United States. Outgoing minister Sander Dekker announced a provisional ban on adoption on Monday. A new cabinet must look at it again. Four hundred parents who were already very far in the procedure are still allowed to continue, including Chantal and Dirk-Jan.

'Terrible Time'

The days before the report came out, they heard that the minister was going to intervene. They feared their adoption would not go through either. “It was terrible leading up to the report. We knew it was going to come and cause dust. We never expected any adoption to be called 'child trafficking'. Until yesterday it was terrible, we are there all weekend sick of it. "

The adoption may therefore continue with Chantal and Dirk-Jan, but mixed feelings still dominate due to the hard conclusions of Tjibbe Joustra. "We feel that we have to justify ourselves. We are very sorry that it is pretended to be all adoptions. People think that we are keeping it going, the child trafficking."

INFO

Report Joustra

Former top civil servant Tjibbe Joustra concludes that there have been many abuses during adoption in the past. The system is still susceptible to fraud and abuses continue to this day. Adoptees who have been searching for their background for years encounter all kinds of abuses and shady practices. It is then no longer possible to find out the real reason for the adoption.

"How more careful can it be?"

Chantal and Dirk-Jan also feel personally affected by the file. "The conclusions from the report felt to us as if we were maintaining something and had contributed to it. We also think it's a sniff at the mother, as if she had received money. That's absolutely not the case. When you read a report, I believe that in certain countries things happened that could not be tolerated, but a lot has changed now. What more do you want to improve now? How more carefully can it be? "

Minister Sander Dekker says he understands that the conclusions of the Joustra Committee have an enormous impact on parents who have recently adopted a child. "They assumed that their process went correctly and without wrongdoing. And in many cases it is. But the Committee also indicates that the current system of intercountry adoption contains inherent vulnerabilities with a risk of wrongdoing."

05-02-2021

Contact with the mother

They already have an adopted one-year-old son from the United States, and Chantal says the procedure was meticulous. After two and a half years they were able to take Jules into their arms. "His mother was pregnant and chose us. She decided during pregnancy that this is what she wanted. She could not raise him. We are still in touch via whatsapp."

"We don't close our eyes to what happened in the past, but I dare to put my hand in the fire that it is not happening in America. The mothers can choose at any time to stop it. With us it is. very transparent. "

Foster care by break

The De Boer family could not have children themselves and therefore decided to adopt. "We did not want to create a child through a sperm donor, but rather wanted to take care of children who otherwise would not have a home." Chantal fears that American children, whose adoption is on hold, will end up in the American foster care system. "Then they go from family to family."

This view is shared by the National Association for Adoptive Parents (LAVA). "Nobody has thought about the fact that the stop on adoption also has consequences for the children. They thought they would have family," says chairman Sander Vlek. "For every stop on the parent side, the future of a child on the other side also stops."

Minister Sander Dekker responds that the committee has indicated that the interests of the child have not come first for a long time. "With the suspension of intercountry adoptions, we now protect the interests of children and their biological parents. They must be protected against possible abuses that are at risk in this system."

'Not to be shaved'

Vlek finds the conclusions from the report about the past shocking, but finds it unjustified that the current adoptions are now being halted completely. "You have to improve the system, but there is no evidence of wrongdoing in current practice."

He therefore disagrees with the provisional adoption ban. He himself has two adopted children aged 3 and 5 from South Africa. After years of unsuccessful attempts to find the parents, they were allowed to come to the Netherlands. "After 3 and 5 years of waiting, someone has to have the balls to say 'you can't let this go on like this any longer'." According to Vlek, you cannot put all procedures together.

01-07-2020

Long procedure

Chantal and Dirk-Jan can continue in the procedure, but they do not know when their second child will arrive. They have to register in the United States, create a book with their profile, and then a mother has to pick them based on that.

It is a lengthy process, Chantal describes. "Then you will call her. If she still wants to continue, then it will continue. The match is there until the delivery and then she has many days to think about it after the delivery. The Dutch government will then see whether everything Only then will you be given permission to travel. That could take two or three years. "

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