The government immediately suspends international adoptions
The government immediately suspends international adoptions. There is structural child theft, child trafficking and unethical behavior in adoptions, concluded the Joustra Committee.
Our director-manager Ina HR Hut calls on the government to compensate adoptees and biological parents if possible.
With the temporary suspension, the cabinet is following the advice of the Joustra committee, which has come up with hard-hitting conclusions. On behalf of Minister Sander Dekker, the committee investigated the role of the government in adoptions from Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka between 1967 and 1998. However, the committee notes that before 1967 and after 1998 and also in other countries was and is from adoption abuses. The committee concludes that the system of intercountry adoption is still susceptible to fraud and that abuses continue to this day. The committee has serious doubts whether it is possible to design a public law system in which the identified abuses no longer occur. See here the report.
Outgoing Minister of Legal Protection Sander Dekker admits that the government has looked away for too long: 'The Dutch government has failed by looking away from abuses in intercountry adoption for years and not intervening in this.'
Our managing director Ina Hut is pleased with the conclusions. she too was heard by the committee. In 2003 she made the switch from board member of Nyenrode University to Wereldkinderen, an adoption and project aid organization. At the time, she still thought adoption was a noble thing, but soon discovered that the demand side stimulated the supply. This was also a reason for her to stop her own adoption procedure after she was director of Wereldkinderen for a year. She thought she could improve the system from within, but that was fighting a losing battle. For example, she wanted to do further research into adoptions from China, because she was getting more and more suspicions and evidence of child trafficking. But in this she was opposed by the Ministry of Security and Justice (Central Authority Office). If she were to conduct research in China, The permit of Wereldkinderen would be revoked, it was threatened. She could no longer support intercountry adoption and publicly resigned as a whistleblower in 2009. See here thedocumentary by EO Network. Parliamentary questions and a General Consultation about her departure followed. See here the report that Ina Hut wrote for the Lower House for the General Consultation dated 6 October 2009. However, this did not lead to a stop. However, the number of applications for adoption decreased considerably, because the image changed.
In 2016, at the request of the Minister of Security and Justice, the Council for the Application of Criminal Law and Youth Protection (RSJ) investigated intercountry adoption and also issued the urgent advice to stop intercountry adoption from certain countries (such as China and America). The Board concluded: 'Despite the advantages at the level of the individual child (micro level), according to the RSJ, the adoption system is not the best solution for protecting children belonging to the target group in general (macro level)'. EenVandaag interviewed
Ina Hut: 'I am very happy with this report from the Joustra Committee. It also feels like recognition to me. Intercountry adoption should not put commercial interests first, nor the interests of adoptive parents, but the interests of children and their biological parents. Intercountry adoption has degenerated into a diseased system, in which demand determines supply. I already indicated this to the ministry in 2009. However, the government has not wanted to see this for decades and has even facilitated it. It is good that outgoing Minister Sander Dekker now acknowledges this and apologizes. It is now important to go a step further: 'Don't stop for now, stop forever! If possible, compensate adoptees and their biological parents for the suffering that has been suffered. And facilitate DNA and roots research '.