The government distorts the truth about adoptees

For more than 50 years, enormous resources have been invested in finding and transporting adopted children to Sweden. It is beyond any doubt that irregularities have occurred.

To spend time and work on ensuring that the 60,000 individuals brought to Sweden have access to their fundamental rights is, on the other hand, considered unrealistic, write representatives of the Transnationally Adopted National Organization.

DEBATE. On Thursday 27 October at 08.00, a press conference was held where Minister of Social Affairs Lena Hallengren announced that a state inquiry would be appointed to "investigate the existence of any irregularities in relation to the countries of origin from which most adoptions to Sweden took place and the countries of origin where there are strong suspicions of that there have been irregularities ”. The investigation will last for two years, and aims in addition to the investigation of irregularities to clarify what responsibility different actors have had.

Put beyond all doubt

Hallengren's statement will be another disappointment for those who have hoped for redress. Over the past year, parents from several countries have testified in news reports as well as documentaries and police investigations that their children have been stolen from them, or that they have been pressured in various ways to leave their children. It is not about "possible irregularities". It is beyond any doubt that irregularities have occurred.

The government's directive states, among other things, that the inquiry shall investigate "the need for adoption-specific support" for adoptees. This is despite the fact that the over-representation of mental illness among transnational adoptees has been known for decades. So far, no other measures have been taken than that a digital conversational support was procured by the Agency for Family Law and Parental Support in 2020, from a private center in Dalarna without specialist competence.

The directives state that financial compensation or support will not be paid to those affected - neither to adoptees nor to their first parents. Help for return trips or DNA testing, for example, something that many adoptees currently cannot afford.

Huge resources have been put into adoptions

For more than 50 years, enormous resources have been invested in finding and transporting children to Sweden, adoption centers have been established in many countries, salaries have been paid for a large number of employees, adoption grants have been given to parents who want to start a family through adoption, and investigations have been funded. as parent education. To spend time and work on ensuring that the 60,000 individuals brought to Sweden have access to their fundamental rights is, on the other hand, considered unrealistic. It illustrates whose needs are at the center of the forthcoming investigation.

Blaming the spirit of the times is a way of justifying the past instead of taking responsibility, and we are tired of it.

The directives also state that the investigation must "be based on the current regulations and organization and take into account the attitudes and norms that existed in society at the time". We think it is problematic that the inquiry should take into account the norms and attitudes of the time. Blaming the spirit of the times is a way of justifying the past instead of taking responsibility, and we are tired of it. Sweden, which is the country that has adopted the most children per capita, cannot abdicate responsibility due to the "attitudes and norms" of the time.

No one from the investigation has heard from him

The inquiry has only emerged after decades of passivity and silence, and it is worrying that transnational adoptees, who for so long have fought for the right to their truth, are again denied this with Hallengren's statement and government directives.

The directives for the investigation are not drawn up together with those affected. The investigation should be carried out in close collaboration with transnational adoptees and their first families. We in the National Organization of Transnationally Adopted have expressed a wish to the Ministry of Social Affairs to become involved as a reference group.

Despite this, no one from either the Ministry of Social Affairs or anyone connected to the forthcoming investigation has heard from us. We believe that the least Sweden as a nation can do, after having contributed for decades to the irregularities that Hallengren describes as "possible", is to listen to us.