Switzerland is planning to ban international adoptions, following revelations of shady practices in the past. Other countries banning international adoptions claim they are doing it for the child’s welfare, but sometimes it’s just about power politics. 

Children from abroad should no longer be adopted in Switzerland in the future – this is the plan of the Swiss governmentExternal link. 

In 2023 the government acknowledged significant irregularities in international adoptionsExternal link between 1970 and 1999. These findingsExternal link by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) highlighted systemic failures and negligence by both federal and cantonal authorities. 

Several thousand children from Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, India, Colombia, South Korea, Lebanon and Romania were brought to Switzerland through illegal practices, including child trafficking, forged documents and missing information about their origins. The written consent of biological parents was often lacking.External link In Chile and Brazil, for example, several cases have been documented where a child’s birth document was falsified. 

“There are always loopholes” 

Maxance was placed at birth to escape abusive parents. He is now 18 years old, is a brilliant student and today tells us about his extraordinary journey.

Kochi: The procedure for adopting a child must be approached with empathy, humane consideration and a holistic perspective that resonates with the anxiety of an adoptive couple, rather than adhering strictly to procedural rigidity and pedantic interpretations, the HC has stated.

"Matters involving children cannot be confined to the four corners of legal technicalities; they demand a compassionate and progressive approach that prioritizes the child's best interest," added the bench led by Justice C S Dias. The bench made these remarks in response to a petition filed by a couple challenging the decision of the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) to bar them from adopting a child for one year. The bench set aside this decision and directed the Authority to give the petitioners another opportunity to adopt a child as per the law, within a month.

The petitioners, who had previously adopted a five-year-old boy, approached CARA in 2021 to adopt a girl child. They registered on the designated portal, ‘Child Adoption Resource Information and Guidance System' (CARINGS), and after a four-year wait, were provided the details of a girl child for adoption on Nov 11, 2024. They were required to reserve the child within 48 hours. However, the necessary study and medical reports, which are mandated by law, were not attached to the child's details. The petitioners contacted the authorities, and the reports were provided a day later. By the time they attempted to reserve the child, the details had been removed from their dashboard due to the lapse of the 48-hour window. As a result, they were debarred for a year, which led them to approach the high court.

The court noted that the decision to debar the couple, due to the absence of the mandated reports, was arbitrary. It emphasized that the case was not a commercial dispute requiring strict adherence to timelines but rather involved an adoptive couple's deep and enduring desire for a child, which had caused them significant anguish for the past four years.

The Kerala High Court ruled that prospective adoptive parents must be given child study report and medical examination report to review when they are referred the profiles of children for possible adoption.Justice C.S. Dias referred to Section 59 (6) of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act of 2015 and Adoption Regulations of 2022 to state that child study report and...

Broadcaster KRO-NCRV is 'happy to talk' to a woman who was linked to the wrong family in the program Spoorloos . The broadcaster announced this in response to an article in the Volkskrant , in which the woman told her story on Wednesday. Her real family has already passed away.

The woman, Marthainès de Vries, was linked by Spoorloos to a family that turned out not to be her real family more than twenty years later. De Vries later found her real family herself, but her father and mother had already passed away. "I am so sad, and so angry with Spoorloos . If the editors had done their job properly, I could have spent another nine years with my real mother and eleven years with my father. Now they are dead. I will never get that time back," De Vries told the newspaper . De Volkskrant also writes that De Vries has started a crowdfunding campaign to finance a possible lawsuit.

KRO-NCRV states in a written response that it finds it 'very sad and regrettable' that an incorrect match has been established. "We have been in discussions with Mrs. De Vries for months about her doubts and have immediately offered her to conduct further DNA research, which she has not wanted to use." KRO-NCRV writes that it is happy for her that she has found her own biological family in Colombia.

"We realise that she still has many questions and so do we. Mrs De Vries has informed us that she will contact us further. We would like to talk to her personally. We believe that this constructive approach does more justice to the situation, in which there is a lot of personal suffering." The broadcaster believes that it is 'not the right route' to discuss it via the media.

Dear Sir/Madam, 

In 2013 I handed in a FOIA request. I had requested to communicate by mail, since I live in Brussels/Europe. 
I did not hear anything back. 

Now this FOIA overview was send to me by someone who found my name on it. 
It states 'other reasons', and it is not clear to me what that means. 

Could you please clarify? 

Thank you in advance, 

Roelie Post

I kindly request a confirmation of receipt and confirmation that my FOIA request is in process.

Best regards,



Thank you for your e-mail.  Please note, this mailbox is for press inquiries only.  If yours is a press inquiry, we will get back to you shortly.

For many other adoptees they were able to find their biologcal family by doing DNA tests. They were the fortunate ones to be reunited with their family. This begs the question as to when it will be my turn

Fardau’s search has led her back to Sri Lanka five times since 2005. Her adoption papers listed a woman named Redige Baby Nona as her birth mother, but a DNA test in Colombo proved otherwise

For 20 years, Fardau Huisman has been searching for a missing piece of her identity—the truth about her birth family. Born in Sri Lanka in January 1985 and adopted by a Dutch family as a baby, she grew up in Holland with little knowledge of her origins. Her Sri Lankan name was Ganga, but the identity of her biological parents remains a mystery.

Fardau’s search has led her back to Sri Lanka five times since 2005. Her adoption papers listed a woman named Redige Baby Nona as her birth mother, but a DNA test in Colombo proved otherwise. That revelation uncovered a darker truth—Baby Nona