They are not surprised by the criticism of adoption: 'A child was regularly given a name that was invented on the spot'

The adoption of children from abroad has been temporarily suspended, following harsh criticism from the Joustra Commission. Marijke Bleijenberg worked in a children's home in China and is not surprised, as is Antony Vinke, who discovered errors in his own adoption file.

'Even before this research report brought it to light, I was already aware that adopted adoption procedures are not always correct. My own adoption papers also contain errors and forgeries, 'says Antony Vinke (34). His parents adopted him as a baby from Sri Lanka. He doesn't blame them, he emphasizes. 'They have acted in good conscience and conscience. I am now happy with my family in the Netherlands. But if no mistakes had been made in Sri Lanka, I probably wouldn't have ended up here. '

'A mess', is how Vinke summarizes the papers that his parents received upon his transfer. "For example, the medical document said I was a girl." In 2016, when he was 29 years old, he decided to look for his biological parents in his native country.

He received the assistance of a Sri Lankan who is an expert in such quests. 'I ended up on an emotional rollercoaster. You start with the basic information you have, but in the hospital where I was born I saw my name, but the name of my biological mother was missing. ' Then they tracked down a couple whose husband had the same surname as stated on Vinke's papers. 'It turned out that he had a son from 1986, but he lived in Sri Lanka. So that trail also ended. '

Vinke had a photo of the woman who gave it up. Its publication in the national newspaper in Sri Lanka resulted in a reaction from a woman, but her story did not match what Vinke knew about the transfer at the court at the time.

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Antony Vinke with his alleged mother - image nd

A handwritten letter - in English - that was in Vinke's file with the photo, led after a search to a woman who stated that she had delivered Vinke to the court, but that she had not given birth. 'The lady told me that I had been left with her by my biological mother. My mother would have walked west from the mountains with me in my arms. This story seemed to us to be made up. We suspect that this woman has brought several children away and made money from it: child trafficking. It didn't help me find my mother. ' The fact that the research report shows that 'many mistakes' have been made in adoption procedures with other countries, Vinke acknowledges. 'Also that Minister Dekker has apologized. However, I will not get my biological parents back with it. My own search has provided more insight into adoption, but questions about my origins remain. And that is a shame. I am grateful for a sweet, nice family that I now have. And that I was able to grow up in a safe environment to become the man I am today. '

'The dates of birth of children were not always known'

Marijke Bleijenberg (51) is not surprised by the hard conclusions of the Joustra Committee on abuses surrounding foreign adoptions. In 1994 she herself worked as a volunteer in a children's home in a medium-sized provincial town in the south of China for a year.

There she saw with her own eyes that adoption procedures of the local government often did not go by the book. 'The dates of birth of children were not always known. And a child was regularly given a name made up on the spot when the papers were prepared for adoption. We would never have heard that name before. '

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Marijke Bleijenberg - sculpture nd

Bleijenberg was responsible for baby care in a children's home set up by a missionary. It was, she said, the much-needed answer to how the Chinese state failed to take responsibility for its youngest residents.

'Chinese parents were only allowed to have one child; that meant they were eager to have a boy so that he could take care of them in their old age. Girls in particular were therefore abandoned, and especially if there was something wrong with them: if they had an open back or cleft lip, that was no sign of strength. '

These children ended up in the state children's home. 'They lived there in appalling conditions. Some died because they couldn't hold a bottle themselves. Because we established contacts with such a home, it was very difficult to take over the care of children and to offer them better care. They were often babies with another umbilical cord. '

Almost all the children that the orphanage looked after were eventually adopted by Dutch families. 'In the Netherlands, the children therefore received the necessary operations. The government in China earned money from the adoption, which was big business for them, but you just needed them for the papers. '

Looking back, "Our point was not to promote adoption, but to save children from certain death." She points out that in the past the BBC has made documentaries with a hidden camera about the dire conditions in the state children's homes.

According to her, these practices were prevalent "in every major city in a province" in China.

She realizes: 'With adoption you can maintain a system, but if it weren't there, it wouldn't change. I suspect many more children would have died by then. The fact that a government can easily earn thousands of euros per adoption is simply the way it is. I don't think the money was used to improve the children's homes, but I don't know exactly how it went. '

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