It has been newly revealed that at least 31 children admitted to the Brothers Welfare Center between 1976 and 1989 were adopted overseas.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) held its 96th committee meeting today (the 21st) and decided to “find the truth” about 10 cases, including the Brothers Welfare Center human rights violations.

The TRC announced that it confirmed the existence of 31 children and 17 biological mothers among the Brothers Welfare Center inmates who were adopted overseas.

The results of the investigation also revealed that the “Confirmation of Support Obligor Notice,” which should have been conducted to find guardians before requesting adoption of children admitted to the facility, was ineffective. The notice

was conducted at a district office in Seoul, unrelated to the place where the children were found, while the children had already been transferred to an adoption agency and were in the process of being adopted overseas.

The TRC recommended that the government issue an official apology, restore the victims’ honor, restore identities and family relationships lost during the forced detention process, and identify missing persons.

At today’s meeting, it was decided that the truth of the Samcheong Education incident would be further investigated, and 70 additional human rights violations were confirmed. Accordingly, the number of victims whose truth has been investigated in relation to the Samcheong Education has increased to 634.
 

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Moon Ye-seul (moonster@kbs.co.kr)

On Wednesday 22 January, Minister for Children and Families Kjersti Toppe (Sp) received an interim report from the committee that investigates adoptions abroad.

The investigative committee was appointed by the Støre government on 20 June 2023, and will find out whether Norwegian authorities have had good enough control over foreign adoptions, and whether there have been illegal or unethical conditions in connection with foreign adoptions to Norway. The committee must now deliver an interim report which, among other things, contains preliminary findings on adoptions from Colombia and Ecuador. The committee will deliver its final report in December 2025.

See the committee's mandate.Committee leader Camilla Bernt, professor of jurisprudence at the University of Bergen, will present the interim report.After the presentation, there is an opportunity for an interview with the Minister for Children and Families and the head of the selection committee.Time: Wednesday 22 January at 10:00–11:00. Registration from 09.30. Bring your press card and valid ID.City: The auditorium in R5, Akersgata 59.Registration: Press wishing to cover the meeting can register before 12.00 Tuesday 21 January to media@bfd.dep.no.The event will be filmed by the Danish Security and Service Organization (DSS) and can be followed directly on this page.For questions from the press, contact communications advisor Amalie Knudsen by email: Amalie-fosse.knudsen@bfd.dep.no or phone number: +47 926 66 262.

Perhaps those children, who are now adults and often have children of their own and have built a (perhaps good) life, do not want to be "reunited" with people they do not know at all. This also applies to adopted children. Some do everything they can to find their biological parents, others decline them festively. And sometimes that biological family does not want to be "found" either.

The Adoption Committee criticizes both the Norwegian authorities and the Adoption Forum association for adoptions from Ecuador and Colombia.

For one year, the adoption committee has been investigating foreign adoptions to Norway.

The committee's task is to determine whether Norwegian authorities have had sufficient control over international adoptions and to uncover whether illegal adoptions to Norway have occurred.

– We take what we have found seriously, said committee leader Camilla Bernt when she handed over the report to Minister of Children and Family Affairs Kjersti Toppe (Sp).

A gynaecologist from Heraklion and a colleague from Chania, were arrested on Monday, January 20, as part of an investigation into an illegal adoption ring uncovered last August.

This comes after Australian parents were unable to bring their newborns home after a well-known fertility clinic in Crete, which uses surrogacy, was raided by police due to claims of human trafficking and fraud.

Nine newborns – including a number of Australian babies – were detained by the Greek government in a high-security neonatal ward in Crete’s Chania Hospital after the Mediterranean Fertility Institute was raided by federal police on accusations of human trafficking and fraud.

Through the utilisation of DNA testing for identification, the babies were eventually returned to their biological parents.

The Heraklion-based doctor supposedly linked to the scandal was arrested while working and discreetly transferred to Chania for questioning. There, he was initially brought before the prosecutor and then the investigating judge.

Adoption plans for couples or single people over 60 are thus halted.

An earlier version of the story stated that adoptions have been suspended from a number of countries, following several revelations. It is true that Bufdir recommended a temporary halt to all foreign adoptions pending the completion of the Investigation Committee 's work, as they believed that the risk of illegality was real. The Ministry of Children and Family Affairs chose not to follow the recommendation from Bufdir. Bufdir has since rejected most applications for renewed mediation permits, so that in practice there has been a halt to adoptions from a number of countries.

There has been a lot of debate about adoption from abroad.

Now, one of the three organizations that has been conducting adoption has decided to cease operations.

This is stated in a letter sent out by "Children of the World" to its applicants. The organization has received money from the authorities in 2025, pending clarification on whether they can continue with adoptions in the future, but:

The use of DNA tests, banned in France, sheds light on long-hidden abuses committed with impunity over several decades: illegal adoptions, false birth certificates, etc. "Libé" has collected the testimony of children adopted in murky conditions and of a mother forced to abandon her.

In the playground, she would cheerfully answer: "My skin color is because I go to Spain all summer. The sun loves me." The explanation suited her, she is so dark and matte, and her parents are as fair as wheat. But the year she turned 10, she overheard her grandfather mention her "adoption." The ground beneath her feet cracked. The information steeped in her stomach for a long time without a word - her mother "freezes" at any attempt to discuss it, her father hardly better. Today, at 56, Blandine still doesn't know the precise circumstances of her birth. Especially since legally... she was not adopted. According to the civil registry, she was born to the Vignolles couple on November 1, 1968, "exactly as if my adoptive mother had given birth to me." No trace of abandonment or birth under X. The copy of her full birth certificate reveals nothing. "I was white as a baby, my mixed-race origins only became visible later. Without that, I might never have known anything."

When her parents die, she rummages through their documents and finds a cardboard folder stuck in the house construction plans. On this letterhead, typewritten: "The baby you asked for and I promised you

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: ACT

Date: Sun 5. Jul 2020 at 17:57

Subject: Nomination of DCI / Benoit van Keirsblick CRC committee

To: newyorkUN@diplobel.fed.be

Didier Reynders © Marzia Cosenza / European Commission

Day before yesterday · 2 MIN

ING Bank under scrutiny in money laundering case of former EU Commissioner Didier Reynders

Simon Van Dorpe

Contributions

As I walked into my son’s elementary school holding bags of treats for his class, another mother passed by and while smiling asked, “Oh, wow, how many children do you have?”

It’s a simple question for most, but for someone like me—someone who wears the badge of “Birth Mother”—it was triggering. I was taken back as my 4-year-old daughter blurted out, “She has three, but my sister doesn’t live with us. She gave her away.”

Okay, those may not have been her exact words, but it’s how I felt at that moment. There I was, the PTA President, fumbling for a response while gently nudging my daughter along. I quickly replied that my husband and I have two children and moved on, never looking back to see the other mother’s reaction. I couldn’t help but wonder, “Does it ever get easier?” Maybe. Maybe not. It depends on the day.

As I walked into my son’s elementary school holding bags of treats for his class, another mother passed by and while smiling asked, “Oh, wow, how many children do you have?”

It’s a simple question for most, but for someone like me—someone who wears the badge of “Birth Mother”—it was triggering. I was taken back as my 4-year-old daughter blurted out, “She has three, but my sister doesn’t live with us. She gave her away.”