Last year, 22 Czech children found a new home with a foreign adoptive family.

Roman Suda experienced one of the adoption stories. He is the director of the children's home in the West Bohemian town of Nepomuk. In the Czech Radio's domestic broadcasts, he tells the story of two siblings of preschool age. After nine months in the children's home, a new home was found for them in Italy. The foreign language was no obstacle.

"The children have an impressive ability to learn very quickly. They showed us that. After just a few weeks in the Czech Republic, they were able to understand Italian relatively well. An interpreter helped with that. She mediated between the two languages ​​at the beginning."

According to Zdeněk Kapitán, the story of the boy and the girl is a great success:

The ban on adopting children from abroad is causing a lot of commotion among adopted children and adoptive parents. "I think it is a careless decision," says Sander Vlek, advisor at the National Association for Adoptive Families. "I miss the central focus on the interests of the child in this plan."

New adoption procedures are no longer possible since yesterday . Caretaker Minister Weerwind for Legal Protection decided to stop this immediately. Only people who already have an adoption procedure in progress are still eligible.

But adoption from abroad is a measure to protect children, says Vlek. "I miss the evidence that children in countries of origin have a realistic chance of finding a loving family."

At the same time, there are also organizations that applaud the adoption stop, such as International Child Development Initiatives. "The past has shown that abuses cannot be ruled out," says program manager Sarah de Vos of the children's advocacy organization.

Years of discussion

Miriam, what star sign are you?

No idea.

Why not?

Because I don't know when and where I was born.

Whaaat? Not even the day?

Lotte Debrauwer

There Complaints have been filed against the adoption service Het Kleine Mirakel, including due to negligence in medical examinations.

'What Het Kleine Mirakel had on paper about our daughter's health was completely different from what was ultimately diagnosed in our country. I would have liked to have known that in advance.' Sarah* and her husband Klaas* adopted a girl from Portugal last year. Because the file at Het Kleine Mirakel – medical documents that were present in Portugal – were missing, they filed a complaint at the beginning of this year.

Rare ratio

Sarah and Klaas are not the only ones. Nine families expressed their dissatisfaction with Het Kleine Mirakel, one of the three existing services for adoption abroad, with a complaint or report in the past year. The complaints concern the poor communication of the service, but also about incompleteness in the files of the children and the exertion of pressure on prospective adoptive parents. De Standaard already reported in October 2023 about the complaint of a couple who experienced emotional pressure to adopt a child from Hungary.

The trial of Julienne Mpemba continued this Friday with the civil parties before the criminal court of Namur. Parents and children who are devastated and still waiting for answers to their questions.

Stolen lives, broken families, changed destinies, voices that tremble and eyes that moisten, emotion is felt on the benches of the civil parties. This Friday, June 28, the trial of Julienne Mpemba continued before the criminal court of Namur. " I want to give my little girl back her story," says the mother of Lucie (not her real name), one of the adopted children. "She only knows the readable part of her story." Sitting next to her, the parents of Théa (not her real name) also echo the same sentiment: " Our daughter is between two identities. Our goal is for her to be able to rebuild herself, to know who she is, where she comes from." For the mother, anger is also taking over. " I am here today because I don't want any mother, any other family to go through this. I also remember the contempt of the Belgian and Congolese institutions that helped Julienne Mpemba. We knocked on every door and none of them ever opened. I would have liked to look her in the face, tell her that children are not interchangeable, that she has no respect for these children."

Since the beginning of the investigation, Julienne Mpemba has taken refuge in Congo and is still running the orphanage. "Today, it's too much. We've been in the process for 8 years just to get a judicial truth since we can't count on a minimum of frankness from her," adds Théa's father.

"Are we really going to send these children back to Congo?"

But the challenge of the trial for these torn and powerless families will be to know whether or not Julienne Mpemba will be found guilty or not. Apart from the civil claims, some lawyers are asking sometimes to recognize her guilt, sometimes to exonerate her. Because if the woman from Namur is indeed guilty, then adoption is no longer worth anything. And what future for these children who have built themselves in Belgium? " Are we going to send them back home? Where crime and violence reign? Are we going to send them back to poverty?" , intervenes the counsel for one of the families. They are uprooted, they no longer know the language. Their life, their school and their friends are here, in Belgium." And another lawyer who is a civil party adds: " I am asking that all the charges be established. For her, the children are merchandise."

A child of four or five sits colouring at a low table. Memory can be tricky: the image is dim and rather unstable. But I know that the child is me, and that she’s been caught showing off by her grandmother, who is looking after her. (Where are the parents? I don’t know.)

‘I’m going to show my mummy and daddy,’ says the little girl, about her picture.

‘They’re not your mummy and daddy,’ says the old woman on the sofa, witchily. ‘You have a real mummy and daddy somewhere else.’

The child I remember doesn’t show her face; she keeps on colouring. But words have magic powers. Real… somewhere else. This single sentence sucks the reality out of everything around her: the red carpet, the blue Formica tabletop, the buttoned upholstery of the sofa on which her grandmother sits watching her.

You could call it a life sentence, for this is the moment in which I learn that I am adopted.

AMSTERDAM/BRUSSELS/SOFIA - Adoption is often associated with poor countries in the global South. Yet Flanders and the Netherlands adopt children from other European countries, such as Bulgaria and Hungary. This cross-border research shows that Roma children in these countries are discriminated against and end up in the adoption system due to stigma, poverty and a lack of support for families. 

Both Flanders and the Netherlands had a study conducted on the sending countries to decide from which countries adoption would still be possible in the future. The issues of discrimination, poverty and a lack of support for families in Bulgaria and Hungary were raised several times in those screenings. Nevertheless, both countries decided not to break off the collaboration. 

The research was conducted by the weekly magazine Knack, the platform Investico, the TV programme Zembla, the Bulgarian newspaper 24chasa and the Hungarian medium Atlatszo.

Human rights organization: stop adoptions immediately (Investico, 24/06/2024)

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Stel je voor dat je geadopteerd bent en besluit om je biologische familie op te sporen. Na veel werk lukt het je om je moeder te ontmoeten, maar later blijkt dat dit een fout was en de vrouw niet echt familie van je is. Het overkwam Rodrigo, die uiteindelijk de waarheid boven tafel kreeg. “Mijn intuïtie zei dat er iets niet klopte.”

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Julienne Mpemba's trial, which began on June 24, is coming to an end. The Namur native of Congolese origin risks up to 12 years in prison for child trafficking. The children had been taken from their families in Congo to be adopted in Belgium.

It took seven years for the case to finally come to a conclusion . In a few days, Julienne Mpemba will know whether she has been found guilty or not. The 47-year-old woman from Namur of Congolese origin is suspected of human trafficking, adoption fraud, kidnapping of minors, hostage-taking, fraud, corruption and forgery . In 2016, the federal prosecutor's office revealed that at least three of the 11 children who arrived in Belgium in 2015 had been kidnapped. They had been given other identities and dates of birth even though they were not intended to be adopted . These illegal procedures had nevertheless gone under the radar of the Authorized Adoption Organizations (OAA), the French Community and the Belgian and Congolese authorities (several people and organizations were prosecuted but all the cases ended in dismissal).

The trial began on June 24 and, on Wednesday July 3, the pleadings and replies were on the menu for this third day of hearing. Who is Julienne Mpemba? Arriving alone in Belgium, during her youth, she studied law at UCL. With her degree in hand, she then found a job as a lawyer in the Walloon Region. She also ran on the socialist lists during the 2014 European elections. " Because she was sensitive to the poverty in Congo, she decided to create a non-profit organization in 2008 with the aim of sponsoring abandoned children. She herself adopted a little Congolese boy, notes her counsel. She knows the reality of adoption. From 2011, the project will change and become more ambitious. During 2012, several idealists launched the adoption component and created the Tumaini orphanage, which means "hope", in collaboration with the French Community (FWB). Mrs. Mpemba found premises in Congo, nannies and an administrative team to supervise all the young children who were often in poor health. The aim is to offer them a chance."

"She got into debt for these children"

Two waves of adoptions took place in 2012 and 2013. But on September 25, 2013, a moratorium was issued by Joseph Kabila, the former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, saying that children could no longer leave the country for adoptions. " Everyone is in a terrible situation at that time," continues the defense counsel. "We had to feed these children, provide them with medical care, pay the rent for the orphanage, the salaries of the nannies, ... But there is no support, no social security, no subsidy, no help to run this orphanage. So it is Mrs. Mpemba who is struggling on her own funds. She has gone into debt everywhere to run the structure and accommodate these children."

ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2023:21681

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