Thousands of children born to victims of rape during Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971 were adopted by foreign families. Now, many want to discover their roots

Jane Radika was searching for answers. Approaching 50, she had become reflective about life and yearned to know more about the circumstances of her adoption, from an orphanage in Bangladesh to a small Cornish town in England.

“I was only five weeks old when I came to the UK, so I have no recollection of it. From what I have learned, my mum gave birth to me in the Mother Teresa orphanage in Dhaka. Unfortunately, I have conflicting information – her name may be on my Bangladeshi birth certificate or it may not. It has been lost, which is heartbreaking, but apparently the orphanage has a copy.”

Jane knew almost nothing of Bangladesh growing up and online searches got her only so far. She felt drawn to visit, but the pandemic and personal circumstance had made the prospect seem distant. One morning, she decided to write a letter to the Guardian:

“Dear Thaslima, I came across some of your articles and wondered if you could help. I was adopted into the UK from Bangladesh in 1972 by a British family. I grew up not knowing anything about my past, except that I was a ‘war baby’ and that my birth mother was a Birangona. I want to know if there are others out there like me. Who are they? Where did they go? Can you help?”

Shai Blum, 55, suspected of taking Omri, 23, to woods outside their Maccabim home and shooting him nine times, stabbing him twice; police reject claim of self-defense

Prosecutors filed a murder indictment Thursday against a man accused of shooting and stabbing his adult son, who was on the autism spectrum.

Shay Blum, 55, was charged at the Central District Court with the premeditated murder of his  adopted son Omri, 23.

According to the indictment, on July 14 this year Blum shot Omri nine times with a pistol and then stabbed him in the chest twice, piercing his heart.

Hyderabad: An Italian couple has adopted a 10-year-old orphan from Karimnagar. The couple from Casarsa della Delizia, Italy, was handed over the child after completing formalities as per the Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) guidelines.

“I interacted with the child. He was comfortable with the Italian couple, who came to adopt him. I have also advised him to maintain contact with us and keep us informed about his well-being in Italy,” district collector B Gopi told TOI on Wednesday.

The boy was taken care by Sishu Vihar till he was six years. Thereafter, he was in the care of the authorities at a different place. The Italian couple spoke only Italian and an English interpreter accompanied them as the child was formally handed over in adoption to them.

As per CARA rules, prospective parents seeking to adopt a child, whether, they are from within the country or abroad, should fulfil certain criteria. They will not be given a choice on whether they will be given a boy or a girl in adoption. However, an attempt will be made to accommodate their request. The profile of a child is first sent to the prospective parents, who register as per CARA norms. The child will formally be given in adoption to them once they respond within 96 hours.

Are you an adopter? Have the recent media stories about crime in the adoption system made you unsure of what really went on? Unsure whether you can trust your adoption papers?

For a long time, many adoptees have called for an investigation into the international adoption system, but I think it is time for us adopters to come forward. Our children have a right to know their history. And we have a right to know what kind of foundation our families are built on. 

Minister of Social Affairs and Housing Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil is not averse to an investigation into the adoption system. But partly she has not yet acted on it, and partly she proposes that the Danish Appeals Board be responsible for the investigation. The Danish Appeals Board is the supervisory authority in the area of ​​adoption and thus cannot be regarded as impartial.

Therefore, I hope that you will help sign the following petition:

Dear Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil

As adopters, we are pleased that you are showing an interest in the field of adoption and are considering an investigation into international adoption. Recent media cases clearly emphasize the need for such an investigation.

An impartial investigation
However, it is important for us to point out that the Danish Appeals Board is not an impartial party. The Danish Appeals Board is the supervisory authority, and it therefore does not make sense for them to investigate their own work. It is absolutely essential that both adoptees, original families and adopters can have confidence in the outcome of an investigation, and therefore we would like to call for it to be carried out by a completely impartial commission. One could, for example, be inspired by the commission of inquiry which is currently investigating international adoption in Norway.

A comprehensive investigation
Furthermore, we hope for a thorough, ambitious and comprehensive investigation of all international adoption mediation to Denmark from the 1960s until today. Several smaller studies of individual countries and periods have been carried out over time, but there is a need for an overall picture.

Quick initiation
Last but not least, we would like to encourage the investigation to be initiated as soon as possible. The uncertainty affects many, both adoptees, original families and adopters, and action is needed.

On behalf of the following adopters and co-signatories,

Trine Rahbek
adoptanttanker.dk

The TV2 broadcasts 'The secret in the shadow archive' which were broadcast on TV2 on 2 and 9 August unfortunately support our knowledge of the very unacceptable conditions in adoptions from South Korea, which the Danish Korean Rights Group already documented last year in their investigations of several hundred adoptions. This concerns, among other things, about:

• Exchange and falsification of adoptee's identity
• Systematic lying in South Korea about the background of many adoptees, as they have been lied to as orphans and provided with suspiciously similar background stories about whereabouts etc.
• The Korean adoption agencies' refusal to hand over the adoptees' personal documents/information to them.

As a result of DKRG's documentation, investigations into adoptions from South Korea to Denmark in the 1970s and 80s have been initiated both in South Korea and in Denmark.

Apparently the "business model" itself was invented in South Korea and very conveniently adapted to the country's laws that only orphans could be adopted out, which explains the false backstories that have been attached to the adoptees.

According to the broadcasts, however, the Danish adoption mediation organizations were not just naive recipients of children, but actually also active players in the process, as they - at least as described in the broadcasts - with so-called "donations" pushed for more "deliveries" of children. It goes without saying that if this is true, then the former mediating organizations, now DIA, have a very big problem of explanation, but so do the Danish supervisory authorities in truth!

The letter was written when the woman was approaching her 19th birthday.

A woman shared a heartening letter her adopted mother wrote to her biological mother when she was a teen and it made netizens emotional. The woman named Amy took to microblogging website X, previously Twitter, to share a photo of the letter.

The letter stated, “Amy approaches her 19th birthday. She has matriculated, has her driving license and has grown into a beautiful, colourful and talented young woman. She is becoming increasingly independent. Should she ever make the decision to seek you, I want you to know that I have thought of you often over these 19 years and offered many prayers for you, wishing I could communicate the joy she has been to us…her beauty and her wellbeing.”

Amy’s parents had adopted a boy first who they named Tim. When Tim was three years old, they adopted Amy. “I will always be aware of the pain you will have experienced at the separation from your baby and the enormously unselfish decision you made to have her adopted. There will always be deep gratitude to you for she has given both Derek and I unbelievable pride and joy,” she further wrote in the letter.

“Just found an envelope of my adoption documents, much of which I’d never seen before. This letter from my mom to my birth mother… I am a MESS,” Amy wrote as caption.

Genealogy site Scotland’s People made available records of adoptions dating back 100 years, raising fears for breaches of privacy

A genealogy website operated by the Scottish government has disclosed the names of thousands of people adopted as children.

The Scotland’s People site made available the records of adoptions dating back more than 100 years, records that included the adopted child’s first name and new surname. While the Information Commissioner’s Office has not received a formal breach report, its officials were contacted by National Records of Scotland (NRS), an official arm of the Scottish government that runs the website.

The mother of an adopted child had stumbled upon the Scotland’s People records after finding her child’s full details on the site, BBC Scotland News reported. “The whole adoption register was there online for everybody to see,” she said. “I was horrified.”

A former deputy head teacher of a primary school has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for paying and instructing teenagers in India to abuse younger children.

Matthew Smith, 35, from East Dulwich, was arrested by the National Crime Agency in November 2022, after investigators identified that he was sharing abuse material on the dark web.

Smith was online at the time of his arrest, speaking to a teenage boy living in India and asking him to send sexual images of a younger child, in return for money.

He also had dark web sites and forums open on his computer which were dedicated to child sexual abuse.

NCA investigators interrogated chat logs and financial transactions and were able to establish that Smith had paid that same teenager, and another also based in India, a total of £65,398 to abuse children over a five-year period.

It seems clear that adoption law reform won’t be a priority before the October general election. This will be bitterly disappointing for many New Zealanders.

Despite some significant progress, the Ministry of Justice has revised its timeline for delivering final proposals from the first half of this year to “in due course”. This means there is still no clear end in sight to what has already been a prolonged and frustrating process.

Most importantly, those touched by adoption – including extended families – continue to feel the enduring effects of the antiquated and outmoded Adoption Act 1955.

At the heart of the need for reform lies the “closed” form of adoption the law introduced. This has meant those adopted between 1955 and 1985 were prohibited from knowing their biological parents and family.

It wasn’t until the passing of the Adult Adoption Information Act in 1985 that adopted people (aged 20 or above) gained the right to seek identifying information about their biological parents.

Natalie Montaño was recently reunited with her biological mother from Colombia. And believes this is yet another illegal adoption case. Now she and other adoption activists are demanding a halt to adoptions while the investigation is ongoing.

- I have been an activist for a while, and was not surprised, because my case is not unique. What has happened in Colombia and other countries is just heartbreaking, says adoption activist and former vice-chairman of Utenlandsadopterte (UTAD), Natalie Montaño to Utrop.

Natalie was born in a clinic in Bogotá, and was then at the Lot Pisingos orphanage for nine months before she was adopted to Norway.

She says that she had no burning desire growing up to find her biological origin. But that she still made an attempt after she turned 18.

- This did not lead to anything. But four years ago I happened to come across a page for adopted Colombians worldwide, and posted without thinking too much about it, she says.