Interest association CAFE demands apologies from government and truth commission about illegal adoptions from South Korea

The interest group Critical Adoptees Front Europe (CAFE) is demanding official apologies from the government after images have surfaced of South Korean children arriving in our country completely upset, to be handed over to their adoptive parents. CAFE also wants a committee to be established. That message 'Het Nieuwsblad' Tuesday.

The images date from 1981. According to Yung Fierens (45), chairwoman of the interest group Critical Adoptees Front Europe (CAFE), these images show that even then it was already known what malpractice was happening. For example, children were sold and false birth certificates were also drawn up.

“We request an official apology from the government,” said Fierens. “In addition, we want a truth commission that investigates what went wrong with the intercountry adoptions. And finally, we want support in the search for our parents.”

“As the Flemish Minister of Welfare, Public Health and Family, I understand the questions and concerns about abuses in the past,” responds Hilde Crevits (CD&V). “Flanders has been co-authorized for intercountry adoption since 2012. Previously, this was exclusively a federal competence. There is now a federal debate about how to deal with these abuses.” The minister also points out that at the beginning of June the House unanimously asked the government to start an investigation into illegal adoptions in our country.

Crevits adds that last year, on the basis of a report by an expert panel, the Flemish government laid down the guidelines within which international adoption is still possible in the future. “We try to exclude abuses and abuses as much as possible,” says Crevits.

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