The United States Consulate in Karachi tipped off Pakistani authorities about suspected illegal adoptions, which led to the arrest of the head of a Karachi-based non-governmental organization on charges of child smuggling.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested Mubina Qasim Agboatwala, who runs Hope Ngo after a court rejected her pre-arrest bail. She is accused of sending at least 23 children to the United States.

The FIA’s anti-human trafficking unit began investigating after the US Consulate raised concerns about suspicious adoptions involving Pakistani children. Officials say the children were sent overseas without following legal procedures, and in many cases, their parents were unaware or misled.

According to investigators, the NGO operated without a valid license from the Sindh Social Welfare Department and used forged documents to declare the children as abandoned or orphaned. These children were then placed with foreign families without proper legal approvals.

Child rights activists say the case highlights serious weaknesses in Pakistan’s child protection system. They are urging the government to improve oversight of organizations involved in child welfare and adoption.

"Justice to this child is a factor not to be ignored. Rather, his assertion demands that truth be known, when truth has to be established, as it undoubtedly can," the Court said.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court recently held that a man's right to privacy cannot override the right of a child to know the identity of his father.

Justice Archana Puri passed the ruling while dismissing a revision petition that had challenged a trial court’s decision to allow a child’s plea for the comparison of his DNA sample with that of a man he claims to be his father.

“Justice to this child/plaintiff, is a factor, not to be ignored. Rather, his assertion demands that truth be known, when truth has to be established, as it undoubtedly can. Simultaneously, the right of defendant No.1 [man claimed to be father] to privacy and dignity, also has to be taken into consideration. However, the right of privacy, as such, cannot override the right of the child and vest interest in his favour,” the Court said.

However, the High Court added that the trial court's directive to allow the use of police force to ensure that there is no resistance by the defendant when his DNA sample is taken, was unnecessary.

Private Law Professor Anna Singer at the Faculty of Law in Uppsala University has been appointed the inquiry chair to investigate possible irregularities in international adoptions to Sweden.

On 27 October 2021, the Minister for Health and Social Affairs Lena Hallengren announced that the Swedish Government will set up an inquiry to investigate and clarify the circumstances surrounding international adoptions to Sweden from the 1950s to the present day: in relation to the countries of origin from which the most adoptions to Sweden have occurred; and on the one hand, concerning the countries of origin where strong suspicions exist that irregularities have occurred. The inquiry will map and analyse how the rules, organisation and processes within Sweden’s international adoption procedures have functioned looking back in time until now. The aim is to clarify the incidence of irregularities in Sweden’s international adoption procedures and how different actors in such cases have reacted and related to such cases.

The inquiry will also identify needs for adoption-specific support and propose what assistance and support measures should be offered and has the aim of providing guidance for the development of Sweden’s international adoption procedures moving forward.

The appointed inquiry chair is Anna Singer, Professor in Private Law specialising in Family Law, whose previous research has focused on questions related to the rights of the child; in particular the child’s right to parents and family, where adoption is one way of acting in the best interests of the child.

“I am very honoured to have been entrusted with heading this inquiry, which is of course very important. With the fairly broad terms of reference that we have, I hope that we will also be able to reach important conclusions,” says Anna Singer.

Updated: Melania Trump wrote letter to Putin about protecting children

Editor's Note: This article was updated with additional details after U.S. President Donald Trump published the letter to social media on Aug. 17.

U.S. First Lady Melania Trump wrote a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin concerning Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children as he arrived in Alaska to meet U.S. President Donald Trump, Reuters reported on Aug. 16.

Trump handed the letter to Putin during the two leaders' nearly three-hour meeting on Aug. 15, two White House officials told Reuters. While the officials did not specify the letter's contents, they said it raised the plight of Russia kidnapping Ukrainian children.

Trump later published the full letter to his social media platform Truth Social on Aug. 17 in response to criticism of his meeting with Putin.

"Every child shares the same quiet dreams in their hearts, whether born randomly into a nation's rustic countryside or a magnificent city-center. They dream of love, possibility and safety from danger," the letter begins.

Something very odd went down with Unicef yesterday. We were instructed in writing to pick up patients from the U.S. Comfort Ship. When our driver got there to get the people we were to be transferring to our care, there were Unicef vehicles taking them to some camp.

The unicef folks were not talking, they were just large and in charge. When asked why we had been told to come by the U.S. Comfort ship, they would not talk with us about it.

I'd love to believe somebody just got their wires crossed, but I'm not so sure. Something smelled wrong about it. The Comfort ship went to the work of getting us patient names, details, lists and a time to come get them. Clearly they were unaware of what was about to happen.

The problem is, giant worldwide organizations have power, and they have policies. Giant organizations are so giant that they cannot see the forest for the trees and they cannot see the individual person with the individual situation. We all know power corrupts. The Unicef we're seeing is not as interested in putting people/children first as it is in setting policy, precedent, and moving forward its own political agenda. I've watched people get up in arms and say that it is wrong to not support this long-standing and "worthy" organization. I recognize that will likely happen again here. We can easily agree to disagree if need be.

We're simply stating that the policies and procedures are a long way off from meeting real people with IMMEDIATE NEEDS where they are. (And things are not what they appear to be. Not at all.) The anti-adoption rhetoric has some merit but it is also maddening. Kids abandoned to an orphanage by their birth parent PRE earthquake are now being held in Haiti thanks to pressure placed on the Haitian government by the giant and powerful Unicef.  It is asinine and lacks all logic.

We are all for legal, careful, smart adoption. None of us want to see children taken from a birth parent or extended family that wants to raise them. That would be a terrible thing.

The fact is, Unicef is openly anti-international-adoption and what is happening now is nothing more than political grand-standing and a massive power trip. And all at the expense of children with waiting and approved families abroad.  I am saying, approved and in process adoptions are being used as a political tool by the giant organizations. While I agree policies need to be changed and systems of corruption need an overhaul --- maybe right this minute, when the country has no resources, it is not the very best time to make a stand and hold children here in crumbling institutions while adoptive parents wait eagerly.

Large powerful organizations with money can "encourage" and "convince" and put the pressure on ... and a government in crisis will bend to the will of a single powerful organization.

Meanwhile, children and people in crisis are not being served, cared for, or respected.  I understand the nuance and that UNICEF does some good work. You'll never convince me that an machine that large is actually in touch with real human beings and their real stories. 

It's time for a complete overhaul

OPINION:

In releasing its latest annual report to Congress on intercountry adoptions, the State Department claimed last month on X that intercountry adoption remains “viable, ethical, and transparent.” A year earlier, it praised its team for working “tirelessly” on behalf of families. Yet the numbers and the outcomes for children tell a different story.

What the report doesn’t say outright is this: In fiscal year 2024, the U.S. processed the fewest intercountry adoptions in our recorded history. The report also fails to mention that, despite our government having far fewer adoptions to process, the length of time processing cases has dramatically increased, forcing children to stay in orphanages for months and often years longer than necessary.

The State Department’s 2024 Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption confirms what advocacy groups, adoptive families and child welfare experts already know: The intercountry adoption system is deeply broken, and minor tweaks won’t suffice. A sweeping redesign built on genuine bilateral partnerships and a child-centered strategy is urgently needed.

Each year, women make the desperate decision to abandon their babies. Specially designed ‘baby windows’ can help – but some argue they make matters worse

When Romina discovered she was pregnant in 2021, she was 39 years old and homeless, without a euro to her name. She did what many a lonely and frightened woman has done throughout history, on learning that she was going to have a baby, and pretended she wasn’t. “If you don’t think about it, it doesn’t exist – something like that,” she told me, more than three years on.

By the time she noticed the changes in her body, she had been homeless for nearly seven years. Before that, she had lived a comfortable, secure life in The Hague, with a man she had fallen passionately in love with. But the man had become controlling, she said, preventing her from working or seeing her friends, spying on her and eventually threatening her if she left him.

She left him anyway, one night around Christmas 2014, and so opened a very dark chapter in a life that, to hear Romina, had already known its fair share of darkness – her parents’ divorce when she was three; years of sexual abuse at the hands of a stepfather; her mother’s many suicide attempts, the last of which, in 2009, succeeded; estrangement from her two half-siblings; and separation from her two sons (one of whom was just a toddler) after she entered into that last, abusive relationship, leaving them with their fathers.

Vijayawada: A two-month-old baby girl was rescued from an alleged illegal adoption by a childless couple in Andhra Pradesh. 

The baby girl was accommodated at the special adoption agency in Bapatla after being rescued by officials from the women development and child welfare department.

According to reports, a woman from Bapatla district had delivered the baby girl around two months ago, and a childless couple from Avanigadda allegedly adopted her through middlemen for Rs 2 lakh. 

However, the illegal adoption came to light after the mother approached the Repalle police station, claiming that she was promised a higher amount for the adoption but received only Rs 60,000. Based on the information from the police, the officials led by Radha Madhavi and Rose Leena rescued the baby girl and accommodated her at the special adoption agency. 

The baby girl's health is stable, and her mother was shifted to Sakhi One Stop Centre for counseling.The officials suspect that the baby girl's mother had previously sold her two-month-old baby boy to a childless couple from Nellore in 2024, but the baby boy was rescued and handed over to the mother. 

Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin questioned his adopted son in court about a trip to Ethiopia to try to find his family.

Welcome to the website for the Special Advocate for Survivors of Institutional Abuse

This is your space to be heard, to connect, and to ensure your experiences inform Ireland’s path forward. We stand ready to amplify your voice and bring your perspectives directly to government.

Patricia Carey is the Special Advocate for Survivors of Institutional Abuse

Patricia was appointed to the role in March 2024 by the Irish Government.

In this role, Patricia’s focus is to ensure a strong and amplified voice for those affected by institutional abuse and forced family separation.