We learn from the press (Le Monde 10/02/23) the delivery of a report written by two academics, Yves Denéchère and Fábio Macedo, at the request of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "Historical study on illicit practices in the international adoption in France”.

According to the article, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs covered for almost thirty years the facts denounced to the mission of international adoption (MAI) by the French consular services abroad relating that about fifteen organizations authorized to Adoption (AIO) have arranged fraudulent adoptions under our laws and international commitments, including the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, the Convention on the Rights of the child, and the protocol to that convention on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.

It is about kidnappings, making false orphans, forced abandonment of newborns, affecting many countries, such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Brazil, Guatemala, Madagascar…, with the key, the organization of a “real market” generating considerable sums.

While one might think that after the scandal of "L'Arche de Zoé" in 2007, revealing child abductions in Chad and Sudan had awakened consciences, while the abduction and forced adoptions of Ukrainian children by Russian families is currently being examined by the International Criminal Court (ICC), France cannot do without an introspection on illicit practices which would have been covered up by public authorities.

Also, DCI-France calls for the immediate constitution of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the facts denounced by the report of the academics and that this one hears the public officials like those of the associations implicated and, also, the associations defending the rights of the child who have long denounced the "market" of international adoption.

As both sides are demanding that amount, it was not given to anybody. Even the death certificate could not be issued.

Kendrapara, Odisha:

The dead, Namita, was the biological daughter of Ranjan Mai and Rupali Mai of Ostia village. She was later legally adopted by Ratnakar Das and Mamata Das of Gopaljewpatana village.

As both sides are demanding that amount, it was not given to anybody. Even the death certificate could not be issued.

"We will provide the money to the legally eligible parents," Rajnagar Tehsildar Ashiwini Kumar Bhuyan said.

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KOCHI: In a significant development in the birth certificate forgery case, the police team has identified a person who has played a key role in facilitating the illegal adoption of the child. The Special Investigation Team, under Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Baby P V, is now trying to trace the facilitator who could throw more light on the case.

“According to the statement given by Anoop’s brother, who reported before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) with the child, there is a middleman who played a role in facilitating the illegal handover of the child. The facilitator and the biological parents of the child are from the same music ensemble,” said Circle Inspector Santhosh of Kalamasserry police station.

“The police are collecting more information like documents, reports, and CCTV footage from the Medical College Hospital,” he added. However, the biological parents, the middle man, and the Tripunithura couple who were raising the child are absconding.

“Anilkumar and others who are involved in this case are still absconding. We are trying to trace them. Meanwhile, the absconding couple from Tripunithura has approached the court for bail,” said ACP Baby P V.

Meanwhile, the chairperson of the child welfare committee(CWC) K K Shaju said, “The health department and CWC are investigating the case. The District Child Protection Office will advertise in newspapers requesting the parents or relatives of the child to appear before CWC and we will go ahead with further legal actions later.”

The association, one of the largest French organizations for the adoption of children internationally, had its authorizations withdrawn in December 2022. For several years, its probity had been called into question.

The news is "a beginning of relief" , after years spent alerting public opinion to the alleged excesses operated by the French adoption organization Rayon de soleil de l'enfant etranger (RDSEE) in several countries. At the end of January, Marie Marre, founder of the collective of French Adoptees from Mali and herself adopted through RDSEE in Bamako, discovers what she has been calling for since her discovery, in 2018, of many areas of he shadow surrounding its adoption: the Quai d'Orsay has repealed all of the authorizations issued to the organization.

Rayon de soleil, which could until now still carry out adoptions in five countries (Bulgaria, Chile, China, South Korea and India) on behalf of French couples, is now prohibited from acting as an intermediary. The ministerial decree confirming this , dated December 21, 2022, had gone under the radar. The reasons for this global arrest – a rare sanction – are not specified.

"The ministry, in taking this decision, considered that the repeated attacks against RDSEE in certain media did not allow the OAA [authorized adoption body] to fully carry out its mission" , specified, for its part, the association on its website. On November 23, 2022, Le Monde published the results of five years of investigation into alleged irregular adoptions carried out by this association, one of the largest French organizations responsible for the adoption of more than 7,000 children across the country. world since the late 1970s.

In Mali but also in the Central African Republic, Madagascar, Haiti, Peru and Romania, multiple sources ranging from the diplomatic archives of the State to French adoptees, biological parents and adoptive parents, including former officials of the association, questioned the probity of Rayon de soleil. All accused the association of having lied to adopt children who should not have been adopted. Contacted before the publication of the article, the Quai d'Orsay had then confirmed that there had "certainly been illicit practices" within the organization, before specifying that it now considered it as a " reliable interlocutor in the way he works today".

Adoption without parental consent, falsification of documents, payment for child abandonment. These are some of the irregularities found in a study of four decades of international adoptions by French people in different countries, including Brazil. The report, published this week, documents illegalities and crimes that occurred in the adoption process, in the registration of the child and in the removal from his country of origin.

The study was carried out by Yves Denéchère and Fabio Macedo, two historians from the University of Angers, and reveals the dark face of the increase in the number of international adoptions carried out by French people from 1979 onwards.

The researchers analyzed thousands of diplomatic files from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the subject and found reports of various illicit practices in the process of adopting children. The researchers studied documents up to 2021, which contained information about adoptions in dozens of countries.

“The most common problem is the lack of consent by the biological family. Be it lack of free and informed consent from the mother, or from the biological family”, explains Macedo.

In the period studied, the countries of origin with the highest number of children adopted by French people were Vietnam, Colombia, South Korea, Haiti and Brazil.

The police told the court that the custodial interrogation of both the accused was needed as a fresh complaint of organ trafficking was lodged against them by a Chandigarh-based woman.

The ongoing investigations by Mohali police into the alleged newborn stealing racket saw more skeletons tumbling out of the closet, with investigators on Tuesday stating that they were now studying the possible involvement of a Non-Government Organisation.

Investigators said that the role of some police officers posted at the Criminal Investigation Agency had also come under the scanner after they learnt that a Chandigarh-based woman had lodged a complaint with Mohali district police last year alerting them about the possibility of existence of such a racket. However, no action was taken.

The district police on January 30 had arrested Manjinder Singh, and his wife Parwinder Kaur — both residents of Faridkot — and Charanbir Singh, and his wife Sakshi, both residents of Patiala, for being part of a racket that was involved in stealing and selling newborns.

Police said that Parvinder Kaur alias Sakshi and her husband Charanbir Singh were produced in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Jagjeet Singh on Tuesday and were sent to two additional days of police remand.

ISRC has been FFIA's cooperation contact since 1983. The then orphanage director Chandana Bose had contact with Bie and Gunilla Enqvist in Umeå in connection with their adoption and was looking for cooperation partners in Sweden. In the first years, Bie and Gunilla were involved as contact persons, but during the 90s this changed. Chandana Bose passed away in 1998 and after that her sister-in-law Madhumita (Anju) Roy came as headmistress.

ISRC runs the Mathri Sneha orphanage, which has been located at several different addresses over the years.

The children mediated through this contact were usually abandoned at birth. Many children were premature, i.e. born too early. The children may also have had a low birth weight. The mothers were predominantly unmarried women and the background documents available on the children are very scarce.

Most of the children have come to the orphanage as newborns. They came directly from the maternity wards of the hospitals to Matri Sneha. In India, an investigation is always carried out based on the various circumstances surrounding the child's background. The investigation must show whether the child has a relative who can take care of the child or whether the child can get a new family through adoption. The Indian adoptive families always have priority, which results in the majority of the smallest and perfectly healthy children having parents within the country. A child who, for example, was born prematurely or had problems with his health as a small baby is often considered for international adoption.

Period of cooperation: 1983 - the system was changed by CARA in 2012

Today it could take only a few months before Italian adoptive families willing to adopt internationally can bring Cambodian children home

A lady took Jane to Kammpong Thom Orphanage by car when she was just a few days old. No, someone found Jane abandoned between two factories near the Monivong Bridge in Phnom Penh. Not yet, her mother died a few hours after her birth and no one came to claim her at the hospital.

These are the three stories that a Dutch adoptive mother, Meta Meulenbelt-Hörz, heard about the discovery of her adopted daughter Jane, a fictional name. No one knows which of these stories is the true one.

“They knew there was something left unsaid about our daughter's story, but we never managed to find out the truth,” said Ms. Meta Meulenbelt-Hörz.

Jane is now 21 years old and lives in the Netherlands with her adoptive parents and her Chinese adoptive brother. And she is just one of thousands of Cambodian children who, between 1980 and 2010, were given up for international adoption.

Three months after the drowning of a 16-year-old adopted girl, the ex-gratia award by the special relief commissioner has split two families to such an extent that the biological parents launched an indefinite hunger strike on Thursday in front of the Community Health Center (CHC) at Rajnagar, demanding death certificate of their daughter to attain eligibility for compensation.

Namita, 16, was the biological daughter of Ranjan Mai and Rupali Mai of Ostia village. The couple also has two sons. Namita was legally adopted as a daughter of a couple Ratnakar Das and Mamata Das of Gopaljewpatana village under Rajnagar block. Namita is mentioned as the daughter of Ratnakar and Mamata in Aadhaar card and school admission register.

The feuding natural and adoptive parents of Namita reached a flashpoint following claim and counter-claims by both the warring parents. As a result, the Rs 4 lakh cheque is yet to be issued by anybody’s name. The medical officer of the Community Health Center at Rajnagar will issue the death certificate of Namita carrying the names of the deceased’s parents.

After getting the death certificate, we will provide the amount to the parents of Namita. The legally eligible parents will be awarded Rs 4 lakh ex-gratia compensation as drowning has been declared as a state-specific disaster, said Ashiwini Kumar Bhuyan, Tehasildar of Rajnagar.

After examining relevant documents and consulting government officials and pleaders, we will issue the death certificate of Namita, said Rashmi Ranjan Mohanty, the Medical Officer of CHC, Rajnagar.