With the adoption of three-year-old orphan Viktoria from Russia, Gerhard Schröder sparked an emotional debate. The usefulness of international adoptions is controversial among experts, the process is extremely complicated for ordinary citizens, and the risks are high.

The welfare of Russian orphans has long been a concern for President Vladimir Putin. So much so, in fact, that one of his first official acts was to address it: In March 2000, Putin issued a decree regulating the adoption of Russian children abroad. This decisive action from Moscow curbed the ruthless child trafficking that was flourishing in Russian orphanages at the time. Since then, only about 80 agencies licensed by the Ministry of Education have been officially permitted to place children.

But Putin has no doubt that his friend Gerhard Schröder, 60, would be a good adoptive father. He was informed from the Kremlin "from the very beginning" of the Schröders' plans to adopt a child from his country. After all, everything is fine with Schröder and his wife Doris, 41, seconded Galina Trostanezkaja, the deputy director responsible for the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. The chancellor couple "chose" the three-year-old orphan Viktoria, the three of them took an instant liking to each other, and a St. Petersburg city court then settled everything else.

When the new addition to the family was announced at the beginning of last week, most newspapers applauded for days, SPD leader Franz Müntefering and Defense Minister Peter Struck congratulated him, and Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber paid tribute to him with "great respect."

The ISD charges 950 DM, 1st installment 600 DM, 2nd installment after the adoption is completed 350 DM. Flight costs to Bucharest for us, departure from Frankfurt with Tarom approx. 1600 DM (two adults there and back). The child pays about 350 - 400 DM later on the 2nd trip, but you have to ask exactly.


 

The Tarom counter is hard to find in Frankfurt! Ask exactly where it is located beforehand! In 1999, it wasn't a counter, but a room behind a counter, and tickets were issued by hand.

So, 2 flights plus child cost about DM 3,600.
Translation costs in Bucharest: about USD 500-600 .
Variable costs: accommodation, rental car, tips, etc.
Depending on the length of stay and the location of the children's home
(in our case, it's a 400km drive from Bucharest), you should budget up to DM 2,000.
The fees of the "Parents and Children" foundation in Bucharest have increased considerably;
before the adoption ban, they were last at USD 3,500. This amount includes a USD 1,000 donation to the Romanian Youth Protection Commission.

Current situation in Romania

Currently, all international adoptions in Romania have been suspended. The suspension is expected to last for approximately one year. The only certainty so far is that the points system currently in use in Romania will be abolished. The ISD in Frankfurt will cease its work once two or more associations are approved in Romania.

Amsterdam, June 23, 2025 – Today, on World Whistleblower Day 2025, we honor the courage and determination of people who speak out against abuses and celebrate the positive changes they bring about. In that light, Transparency International Netherlands tells the story of whistleblower Ina Hut who, as director of Wereldkinderen, exposed the abuses and dangers of child trafficking in the adoption world. After a long battle full of resistance and intimidation, twenty years later she has finally achieved what she wanted: no new intercountry adoption procedures have been started since May 2024. In recognition of the courage and perseverance that Ina Hut has shown in addressing abuses in the adoption world, Transparency is presenting her with the Spotlight Award today.

Hut speaks out after receiving signals about serious abuses in the adoption world at the beginning of the 21st century. The demand for adopted children is many times higher than the supply, with all the risks of child trafficking. At the time, Ina Hut still thought that she could improve the system from within, but it is a losing battle. She tries to raise the issue with various authorities and for six and a half years she speaks out publicly and very critically about adoption on many occasions. She is not appreciated. She encounters a lot of resistance from adoptive parents, from the Ministry of Justice and Security, but also from fellow permit holders and direct colleagues.

Adoption full of market forces and corruption

Ina Hut studies pedagogy and business administration. She has her own company, is an advisor to employers' organisation VNO-NCW and a board member of Nyenrode University. Because Hut wants to do something for the less fortunate, she makes an early switch to the non-profit sector in early 2003: the adoption world. Early, partly due to the death of her first child during birth. Ina Hut starts as director of Wereldkinderen with the idea that children were adopted in the interest of the children, but was disappointed. She herself is also registered for adoption. After a look behind the scenes, she is shocked by what she finds: a harmful system of market forces and corruption in which the demand for adopted children stimulates the supply. It is even reason for her to stop her own adoption procedure a year after her appointment as director of Wereldkinderen, after having been on the waiting list for 12 years.

Children taken away and resold

Navi Mumbai: Four days after a two-day-old girl was found abandoned in a basket outside a girls’ orphanage in Panvel, another case of infant abandonment has emerged—this time on a Harbour Line local train. A 15-day-old baby boy was reportedly abandoned by a woman on Tuesday, and the case has been registered at the Vashi Government Railway Police (GRP) station.
Kiran Undre, senior inspector at Vashi GRP, said that a woman, aged between 30 and 35 years, boarded the ladies’ coach of the CSMT–Panvel train at Sanpada station, carrying an infant boy. As she sat near the footboard with the baby, two women commuters asked her to move away for safety. The woman then struck up a conversation with the two passengers—identified as Divya Naidu and Bhoomika Mane, both 19 years old—and requested their help.
 

She told them she had a lot of luggage and asked if they could hold the baby while she got off at Seawoods station, Inspector Undre said.
Although Naidu and Mane were originally meant to get off at Juinagar, they agreed to help and stayed on till Seawoods. Around 12:30 pm, when the train stopped at Seawoods, the two women alighted with the baby, expecting the woman to follow. But she stayed inside the compartment and let the train leave, leaving the baby behind with the two women.

Naidu and Mane waited for the woman to return but when she didn’t, they took the infant to Mane’s home in Juinagar. After consulting Mane’s parents, they approached the local police station and then Vashi GRP. An offence has been registered against the woman for abandoning the child.
Inspector Undre added, “CCTV footage shows the woman getting off at Khandeshwar station. We have formed four teams to trace her. Her image and that of the baby have been circulated among autorickshaw drivers at Khandeshwar and in nearby residential and slum areas.”

The infant, who appeared weak, has been admitted to the ICU at NMMC Hospital, Vashi. A DNA test will be conducted to confirm whether the woman is the child’s biological mother.

Meanwhile, the two-day-old girl abandoned in Takka Colony, Panvel, on June 28 is currently under the care of Vatsalya Charitable Trust in Alibaug. The Panvel City Police had traced a couple claiming to be the child’s parents within 24 hours of the rescue. The Maharashtra child welfare committee has summoned them for an inquiry. Since the couple has expressed willingness to take the baby back, their DNA samples—along with the infant’s—have been sent for verification, said Nitin Thakare, senior inspector of Panvel.

Chandigarh: Taking cognisance of a viral video, reportedly showing a couple employed as senior faculty in PGI beating up their 13-year-old adopted daughter, the PGI administration has filed a police complaint in the matter and asked for an explanation from the couple.

The video has reportedly been sent by a neighbour from Shimla, where the couple is currently on vacation.

The disturbing footage, which went viral among PGI staff, shows the father, a professor in the department of immunopathology, ruthlessly beating the girl with a wooden stick while the mother, a professor in experimental medicine, stands by without intervening.

Deeply concerned by the incident, the neighbour wrote to the PGI director and other faculty, expressing profound worry for the child's safety.

In a letter, a copy of which is with the TOI, the neighbour mentioned: "This was a regular practice for the last 10 years. Please check how your employees are treating their child. We deeply feel concerned for her safety and the students of such mentors." She wrote further: "I was also hurt while trying to protect the child as an elder sister. I hope you can help the child in some way or the other."

A nursery full of babies awaiting adoption at the WOVA orphanage A Phnom Penh orphanage has been buying babies from a local village to supply foreigners wanting to adopt Cambodian children. Residents of Chrey Koang Village, which is near Phnom Penh's Woman and Orphan Vocational Association (WOVA) which runs the orphanage.

HYDERABAD: The Telangana high court recently dismissed a petition filed by a couple seeking custody of a male infant they purchased from the infant's biological mother through an agent. The baby was rescued by police at Chaitanyapuri when they busted an interstate baby trafficking racket. Along with the infant's adoptive parents, the infant's biological mother also sought custody. However, the court noted that the child's adoption did not occur through the proper adoption guidelines

Rachakonda police, in March 2025, busted a child trafficking racket, rescuing 16 infants and arresting around 15 persons. The accused included the kingpin of the racket, K Krishnaveni, a 'supplier' from Gujarat named Vandana, their associates, and adoptive couples.

The petition seeking the child's custody was filed by a Jeedimetla resident couple as well as the child's biological mother.

Biological mom, adoptive couple were family friends

Their counsel alleged that since the child's biological mother and the adoptive couple were family friends, they gave the child in adoption, a process approved by the Supreme Court in a similar case. Arguing that the child should not be deprived of parental care, they sought the child's custody

• 12 people appointed to Western Australia's inaugural Forced Adoption Reference Group
• Established as part of the State Government's response to Report 66 - Broken Bonds, Fractured Lives: Report on the Inquiry into Past Forced Adoption in Western Australia
• Will guide the implementation of the State Government's response to recommendations

Twelve people have been appointed to Western Australia's first Forced Adoption Reference Group as part of the State Government's commitment to addressing the impact of historic forced adoption policies and practices.

The establishment of the Reference Group was announced during the tabling of the State Government Response to Report 66 - Broken Bonds, Fractured Lives: Report on the Inquiry into Past Forced Adoption in Western Australia.

The Reference Group will play an important role in guiding the implementation of the recommendations supported by the State Government. The Forced Adoption Reference Group will be co-ordinated by the Department of Communities.

The State Government supports 19 recommendations to improve the lives of people impacted by forced adoption, including mothers, fathers, adopted people and their families.

More than 50 years after adoption, Jung Kyung-sook plans to sue the Norwegian government for human rights violations

For most of her life, Jung Kyung-sook, 57, lived with an unrelenting ache — a longing for people who looked like her and for the mother tongue she never had the chance to learn.

Sent from Korea to Norway in 1970 at the age of two, she was among the tens of thousands of Korean children sent to Western countries through a flawed adoption system operating from the 1970s to '90s.

Jung was adopted by a Norwegian couple who, she says, subjected her to years of abuse and neglect.

Now living in the rural town of Ramnes, Norway, Jung is among the 56 Korean adoptees who have received the results of a sweeping investigation by Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The findings, announced in March and sent to applicants in June, revealed significant irregularities in past overseas adoption processes.

Collaboration with INEA 

The search possibilities for adoptees in Indonesia are strengthened by a collaboration between Ibu Indonesia and INEA. With this collaboration, Ibu Indonesia receives support to carry out more searches and to further professionalize its working methods.

James, manager of INEA came to Groningen especially for the start of the project to sign the cooperation agreement with Berber. Our board members Nani and Sonja and our coordinator Dadang Supardi from Yogyakarta were present online.

“Thanks to the collaboration, we can expand our work and make it futureproof. This way, no knowledge is lost and we can help even more adoptees and families.” – Berber, chairman of Ibu Indonesia

“We are pleased to support the work of Ibu Indonesia. Their knowledge of the local eld is essential for good search capabilities.” – James, Manager at INEA