Victims of illegal adoptions claim the truth about their plight

Opaque international adoption procedures have led to a family drama: children separated from their parents, siblings scattered all over the world and lives wrecked. Corrupt networks facilitate these illegal adoptions. Today, the law has been revised to better protect children and families, and separated children are trying to reunite with their families.

By Nadia Raonimanalina and Elise Nandrasanela

2017-014 Law of 6 July 2017 defines the procedures, general terms, conditions, financial contributions related to adoption. The rationale for this law states that “Adoption is a measure of child protection when a child cannot grow up in his or her family of origin or cannot be entrusted to a member of his or her extended family or to a substitute family, such as a foster family.”

In the child’s best interests and with respect for his or her fundamental rights, adoption provides a child deprived of family and parental care with a permanent and definitive solution for growing up in a family environment. However, the response to the child’s right must be first and foremost a national solution so that the break with the child’s environment of origin is limited as much as possible.

Can we still talk about the best interests of the child and the respect of his or her rights if the latter has been taken away from his or her biological parents with a view to adoption and the related procedures have been ambiguous? Between national or international involuntary adoption and child trafficking, there are only narrow boundaries.

A fabricated adoption

An announcement in the social networks drew everyone’s attention, in June 2020: a young mother adopted by a French couple was looking for her biological family. Until then, everything seemed normal. But it seems that the circumstances of her adoption, which occurred in 1987, are unusual. In a post, she writes in black and white. “I have reliable information that my biological father actively sought to get us back (editor’s note: her and her sister). Obviously, he did not seem to have consented to leave us for adoption.“ End of quote.

This mother, now 36 years old, appears to have been adopted illegally. The testimonies of the people linked to these cases corroborate this. The little girl who would have been 2 years old in 1987 (according to a wrist X-ray) was declared abandoned and of unknown parents. This information is included in the birth certificate issued by the Urban Commune of Antananarivo, fifth district on March 25, 1988, in accordance with the full registration copy signed in the same district on July 28, 1987. It was the Congregation of St Joseph Sisters of Aoste in mission in Analamahitsy that obtained the custody order. The judgment of January 12, 1998 pronounces that the civil request of the little girl’s adoption was founded.

So why, 35 years later, does the most concerned person evoke that her father would not have consented to this adoption?

It was explained that this young woman and her sister were sheltered by a Malagasy host family, mandated by the Congregation of St. Joseph Sisters of Aosta. A woman would have abandoned them in this foster family in Ampandrana. During the following months, the two girls’ father would have vainly searched for them.

In May 2021, the research conducted by our journalists following this announcement in social networks, resulted in meeting the two girls’ father. Clearly weakened, he testifies: “I arrived in time to prevent the adoption of my two girls. But the nuns (Sister MX and Sister L., both deceased now) threatened to take me to the police and throw me in jail if I insisted on getting the girls back. That was the last time I saw them.”

This version of the father’s story is attested to by Sister MX’s letter dated December 29, 1987 addressed to JCM, the adopting father. Here is what was stated in this correspondence.

“… I must tell you about a detail regarding your daughter which may not disturb your happiness, but you must take it into account. It is that the child’s father is still looking for her despite the action you know about, he is claiming her and her sister at our house in Analamahitsy, and – Sister L. tells me in her last letter – he will appeal to the Court to find out more and to have the judgment revoked. I believe that he can do it as much in his name as in that of the mother who is not deceased. I think that facing these intentions and pursuits should it be possible, it is good to warn Maître R. that she would alert the Children’s Judge and the Social Assistant. I leave it up to you and recommend that you do not delay in doing all the necessary things that will protect you from trouble. Has the court judgment already given you the right to a full adoption (2)? If it was pronounced, were you notified of it? In short, whatever happens in this case, make sure in advance that you have the best of luck so that you don’t have any trouble; this is my best wish for a happy new year for all of us.”

A missive which effectively shows that the mention “abandoned child, father and mother unknown”, registered in the birth certificate was made up of all pieces. Indeed, the nuns knew the identity and of the father’s existence and had met him many times.

When do we talk about child abandonment?

When can it be said that a child has been abandoned and his or her parents are unknown? This is determined by articles 23 and 24 of the 2017-014 law on adoption. According to the law, a child is declared “judicially abandoned” if the father and mother are unknown. The judge declares a child abandoned upon the express presentation of “a report describing the investigations and searches carried out by the judicial police to find the child’s legitimate family; a certificate of search termination; a certificate of unsuccessful investigation based on the search report drawn up at least three months after the referral to the judicial police officer”.

For this young woman adopted by a French couple, the judgment pronounced on January 12, 1988 was regulated by 063/22 law of November 20, 1963 relative to Malagasy judicial adoption. “An irrevocable judgment”, we learn from a member of the Central Authority of Malagasy Adoption (Autorité Centrale de l’Adoption Malagasy – ACAM), a structure created in 2007.

Our ACAM interlocutor, having heard of the facts, confirms “that it is indeed a trafficking and illicit practice (1). However, the law in force cannot do anything”.

The perpetrators of this crime and their accomplices, the woman who abandoned the girls, the foster family, the nuns, the district delegate, the social assistant, the judge, the clerk, the lawyer, the police officers and even the adoptive parents… will never be worried. The mysteries surrounding this adoption will never be solved. Just like so many other similar cases.

Impacts on family life

The illicit practices and the court’s decision had negative repercussions on the child, leading to a break in the bonds between the young woman and her adoptive father. Indeed, the relationship between the father and daughter degenerated when the victim discovered the conditions of her adoption and the fact that her biological father did not consent to the adoption. Although in her letter Sister MX speaks of the child’s well-being, this was not enough to make the child fulfilled. A reason for her to do everything possible to find her birth family.

In fact, the young woman underwent a DNA test to confirm her ancestry and origins. The test results matched. The next step for her would be to find her sister who was adopted by a family in Mahajanga. “My wish is to be able to reunite all of us towards the end of this year 2021” she hopes. A wish clouded by the news of their biological mother’s death: according to siblings’ explanations, she would have succumbed to a heart disease.

Sold-off adoptions and authorized trafficking

These two girls’ cases are not unique. According to the information we have gathered, about ten research requests on origins are received by ACAM every year. But on the social networks, the research announcements of biological families are also pouring in. “We try to satisfy the requesters according to the data we have on hand. For the notices on Facebook, we get in touch with the persons concerned and we guide them on the steps to take”, Elda Narijaona, Coordinator of CAMA, says. Most searches are successful. Or at least, for adoptions that were pronounced after 2005, and after ACAM was established in 2007. “The information on the child’s origins is kept for an indefinite period of time. Only the adopted person and his/her descendants can have access to it upon request to the Court of First Instance concerned by the file, which will issue an Order of authorization to open the file in question”.

Reconnecting the adoptee with his or her biological family is often painful. “The adoptee is confronted with the harsh reality of seeing the misery of his or her parents. Once, the adopted child went back to France as soon as he saw his mother”, ACAM tells us.

Adoptions carried out before 2004, the year Madagascar ratified The 1993 Hague Convention, and the publication of 2005-014 Law, have been at the heart of litigation. A litigation that often leads to a conflict between the adopted and the adopters. “In the 80s and 90s, adoptions were sold off, with nearly 250 adoptions per year. These were adoptions carried out by illegal and non-standard adoption centres that were only interested in their personal profits. Currently, we have about sixty adoptions per year. We have also proceeded to regularize the approved adoption centres. Most of these NGOs have been closed. Today, only 17 reception centres have been approved, five of which have not been operational for some time,” another ACAM member stated. ACAM was compelled to withdraw the permit of a hosting centre in Antananarivo, run by a British woman this year. The malevolent actions within this centre led to its closing.

For the follow-up of an adopted child, a social assistant and the adoptive parents must submit a report every six months for the first year of the adoption and once a year from the second year on. This report is sent to a licensed adoption agency in the host country which will forward it to ACAM. Such reports will cease to be required once the child reaches the age of majority. A reminder letter to the authorized adoption agency delegate will be issued in the event that a follow-up report is not submitted or does not comply with the ACAM requirements.

Today, international adoption is only permitted if the possibilities of domestic placement or adoption have been duly examined and exhausted.