On Tuesday, the council chamber in Dinant made a decision in the case of the large-scale adoption fraud involving various Congolese “orphans”. Of the eight suspects, only pivotal figure Julienne Mpemba (41) will answer before the criminal court later this year. All officials of the French Community concerned were thrown away. The parents involved are extremely disappointed with that decision.

In recent years it came to light that several Congolese children were offered for adoption to our country, while their biological parents in Congo had not left them at all. They were looted and put up for adoption for big money. According to the federal prosecutor's office, several members of the French Community were aware of the fraud. Passports, police reports, photos and ages were tampered with.

READ ALSO. Pivotal figure in Congolese adoption fraud Julienne Mpemba (42) breaks silence and lashes out at French Community officials (+)

Today the Dinant council chamber decided that the French officials should not answer to the criminal court. They could not be blamed under criminal law, it sounded. The parents of the concerned families who adopt a child are very disappointed. This confirms lawyer George-Henri Beauthier, who has been assisting the families for years. He will soon check with the attorney of the federal public prosecutor whether they can appeal against the decision.

Pivotal figure

The temporary ban on adoption abroad by Minister Sander Dekker of Legal Protection fell to the roof of the adoptive mother of Robin (4) and Tom (0) from the United States.

With other adoptive parents and a number of Dutch people who were adopted in the past, she started a petition to revoke that ban. It has already been drawn more than 10,000 times - and the counter is running.

Too great risks

"Those who have permission in principle can complete the adoption procedure, but how that will work out in practice is unclear," says Gregory. She fears that employment agencies will drop out because the financial risk will become too great. “Then knowledge and skills are lost. We trust Dekker has a solution for that. ”

Gregory and her supporters started their action out of enthusiasm. They want to share their positive adoption stories for fear that negative sentiment will dominate. A committee led by former top civil servant Tjibbe Joustra concluded that there had been child trafficking, corruption and fraud.

Joustra report Let adoptees be satisfied with their rescue from poverty, it sounds. It's not that simple, warns Anouk Eigenraam.

The report that Minister Dekker for Legal Protection is adopting all conclusions and advice from the Joustra Committee and that intercountry adoption is temporarily suspended with immediate effect, has caused a small earthquake in the adoption country, among adoptees as well as at mediation agencies, adoptive parents and researchers.

Anouk Eigenraam is an FD correspondent in China and wrote the book Welcome to Adoptionland (2017).

Many adoptees' interest groups were skeptical about yet another committee investigating intercountry adoption. Time and again, such a committee concluded that there was abuse, some already in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s identified signs of child trafficking, kidnapping, forgery, corruption. The Pavlovian reaction from politicians, advisers, permit holders and researchers was that international adoption was always in the best interest of the child and that many adoptions went well. It is therefore not surprising that Tom Schulpen, emeritus professor of paediatrics and former medical advisor to adoption organizations, also responds in his opinion piece in NRC (11/2).

No structural research

Allysha was informally adopted from The Philippines when she was born. Now, at 12 years of age, she risks deportation when her student visa expires next month.

Andrew had just ‘adopted’ a baby girl with his wife, Marijun, when he discovered the informal agreement between the couple and the child's biological parents meant she'd be ineligible for Australian citizenship.

“It was only when I went down to the Australian Embassy in Manila, and they had a sandwich board with a checklist, that I saw you had to have a DNA test to get [citizenship],” Andrew told The Feed.

“I thought ‘Okay, that's a bit of a worry. It's not gonna work’. Up until then, I had no idea there would be an issue at all,” he added.

After receiving erroneous legal advice in The Philippines, Andrew and Marijun had organised to have their own names listed on the baby’s birth certificate and apply for a child visa.

A group of adoptive parents and adopted children want to stop adopting children from abroad. She has started a petition to reverse the cabinet decision to a full adoption ban. It has been signed more than 6,300 times within a week.

The initiators themselves have positive experiences with adoption from abroad. They therefore believe that “demonstrably careful international adoptions” should be allowed to continue. According to them, the recommendations of the Joustra Committee "came about in a limited, poorly substantiated and non-transparent manner".

One of the initiators is Karen Gregory, herself the adoptive mother of two children from the United States. "You can't put all countries together, many adoptions are going well and according to the rules," she says in Trouw. "A small group of adoptees has suffered tremendous trauma - I don't dispute that - but they don't have to project that on all adoptions," Gregory told the newspaper.

Full adoption stop

Minister Sander Dekker (Legal Protection) announced the full adoption stop last Monday. About 450 adoption files of Dutch people who wanted to adopt a child from abroad are no longer completed. Parents who have already received permission in principle to bring a child to the Netherlands, may complete the procedure “after an extra test” has been carried out.

As we rang in 2021, hopes were rising due to the vaccine being rolled out, the fact that a new U.S. President would be sworn in, the idea that COVID19 might become a thing of the past, and the majority of the world just wanting 2020 to end. However, shortly after January 1, 2021 travel and lockdowns around the world became only stricter with the new variants of COVID19 emerging; all bringing 2021 into question and if it would actually usher in the end of COVID19 and the unique and extremely difficult challenges we’ve been facing.

2020 for me, as many readers may know, was a tumultuous year with, just to name a few things, the confirmation through DNA with my Korean father, a paternal lawsuit filed and won, and his passing. I have a hard time just calling him “my father,” as I legally have two fathers. However, only one of them (my adoptive father, whom I hate to give that title) truly feels like my father, even though my other father actually created me.

Feeding into that thought process; now imagine mourning this man who created you, without ever intrinsically knowing him. I’ve seen him from afar, and met him up close whilst hidden behind a mask, sunglasses, and a hat. However, I do not know him and now I never will. This man who created me, who knew my mother’s identity, and who abandoned me twice is still someone I have had to mourn. It’s not easy to describe nor for an outsider to understand.

Those around me tried to, and would, comfort me with words such as: “He wasn’t your real father…” or “Just think of your immediate family and be thankful.” The list goes on of inappropriate words meant to be of comfort for someone who has just lost their father.

In reality, for an adoptee, or any child, who has been estranged from their parent, losing them is not something you should or can just forget about or carelessly disregard. This person is still your parent who brought you into this world, and you have the right and even the need to mourn that loss. It may not be the same feeling of loss or grieving you may go through if you knew them your entire lifetime and built good memories with them. Maybe that is what makes the loss even greater, because you don’t have that foundation of good memories, or any memories for that matter, to carry you through the weight of the loss and pain you feel at that moment – it’s just emptiness and a deep sense of despair as you think about and wish for it to have been different. Just as 2020 had started with the hope of being only steps away from knowing whom my mother is and confirming whom my father was, it ended with the hopelessness of my father’s family secret being scattered under a tree in a fancy park in Seoul.

'Even if you only save one'. These six words mark the beginning of international adoption in the Netherlands. They are spoken by writer Jan de Hartog, in a television interview with Mies Bouwman in 1967. After the Korean War (1950-1953), thousands of American soldiers remained as occupation forces under the UN flag. De Hartog speaks about the inhumane conditions in which the children of these American soldiers and their Korean mothers find themselves. They are rejected by the family and have no future in their own country.

September 20, 2006

"Do me such a Korean!"

Just give me such a Korean

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A couple have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a one-year-old boy they were set to adopt.

Police said a 37-year-old woman and 34-year-old man, from Barrow-in-Furness, had been arrested on suspicion of murder, causing or allowing the death of a child and two counts of assault.

They have been released on bail, Cumbria Police said.

Cumbria County Council said the child was under its care but was living with the couple before the adoption.

The council said it had recommended an independent safeguarding review was carried out.

In the 1970s, Hans Walenkamp and his wife Ina adopted three children from Colombia, Korea and Suriname. The harsh report on the role of the government in adoption abuses hurts him. "We couldn't have acted better at that time."

It did not come out of the blue. As early as the 1980s, he heard the first discord about adoption, and the image he and his wife had when they embraced their first child in 1971 turned out to be incorrect. Still, the report saddens Hans Walenkamp. “As an adoptive parent, I feel pushed into a corner by the conclusions of the Joustra committee. The advice makes it appear as if I am part of a criminal circuit. ”

Walenkamp (78) also finds the thought that he may have indirectly contributed to abuses. This week it became clear again that foreign adoptions have been forged papers, information has been erased and adopted children often cannot trace their roots. The rock-hard report on the role of the government in these kinds of problems led to a halt in international adoptions.

“My wife and I have talked about it a lot. But I have to say that we haven't felt guilty for a moment. We looked around the adoptions of our three children very carefully and enlisted the help of a bona fide government-approved broker. We have made decisions with a lot of good will, ethical awareness and care. We could not have acted better at that time. ”

'Even if you only save one'

The Swedish Agency for Family Law and Parental Support (MFoF) and the Adoption Center - mediators of international adoptions - request an independent investigation into how foreign adoptions to Sweden took place during the 20th century. Stock Photography. Photo: Jessica Gow / TT

The Netherlands froze adoptions from abroad this week after a government commission discovered that children had been stolen from their biological parents.

A similar inquiry should also be appointed in Sweden, according to both the Swedish Agency for Family Law and Parental Support (MFoF) and the Adoption Center.