Adoption agency knew of serious errors in child cases from Madagascar

In 2022, an employee alerted the adoption agency DIA that they were mediating adoptions from Madagascar on a misleading basis. Still, DIA continued with the adoptions.

When Denmark's only adoption agency, Danish International Adoption (DIA), received an official warning from the Danish Appeals Board in November this year, the message was clear: 

DIA's adoption mediation in the African island nation of Madagascar was in violation of conventions and the adoption law. 

The backdrop for the warning was, among other things, illegal money transfers and an unnecessary delay in the adoption cases of two children. But Danwatch can now reveal that DIA has brokered adoptions to Denmark, even though they knew that the children's papers could contain incorrect information about their biological parentage. 

Danwatch has gained access to a number of children's cases from recent years that contain conflicting stories about the children's past, while there are also two cases where there is doubt as to who consented to the adoption. 

We have also come into possession of an internal correspondence from 2022, where DIA is informed by their own employee that the papers from Madagascar cannot be counted on. 

The same employee admits today that there were problems with the children's cases on the part of the Malagasy authorities:

“We know very well that the reports we sent to DIA in Denmark were problematic. But they are written by people, and the memory of an abandoned child is very complicated", says the employee to Danwatch. 

A professor of social law at the University of Copenhagen assesses that the mistakes could potentially be violations of children's rights:

"The mere fact that there is a suspicion of irregularities, such as consent, means that the DIA should investigate the matter more closely. After all, it is a gross, gross violation of children's human rights if they are adopted on a questionable basis", says Stine Jørgensen.  

Despite the alarm bells, DIA continues to broker two more adoptions from the island state. Director of DIA, Kaspar Bro Larsen, acknowledges "that they have reacted too slowly".

"We cannot go into what a former director has chosen to do and not do. We just have to state that the Danish Appeals Board has not approved cases that we have referred, and we will learn from that and adjust our future practice accordingly", says director of DIA Kaspar Bro Larsen, who was deputy director from May 2022. until he took up the position as director on the first of May this year

This is how we protect vulnerable sources

• Danwatch is in possession of the specific children's cases, internal emails from DIA and correspondence between the Danish Appeals Agency and DIA, which are all confidential material. For the sake of the children and their families and case handlers at both DIA and the Danish Appeals Authority, we have decided to omit the names and positions of persons. 
• It is institutions that come under criticism, not named individuals.

Misleading stories 

In May this year, Minister of Social Affairs and Housing Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil stopped all adoptions from Madagascar following a recommendation from the Danish Appeals Board. The Appeals Board was not least concerned about a number of adoption cases that DIA had submitted for approval. 

The adoption cases contain a so-called child case, which is written by the authorities of the home country. A child case typically consists of a doctor's report, a psychological and social description of the child and a report from the police, which describes as much as possible the child's life until the child comes to an orphanage.

Danwatch has gained access to and reviewed the children's cases and found irregularities in four out of five cases. In three of them, there are different explanations of why the child is approved for adoption. 

Out of respect for the children and families, we cannot refer from the cases in question, but in two cases there are three conflicting stories about the individual child's past, while in the third case it is unclear what preceded the child ending up in an orphanage . 

It shows an internal email correspondence that Danwatch has gained access to. Here, an employee from DIA asks a colleague in Madagascar what is up and down in a specific case. 

The colleague does not answer the question, but writes instead that you do not "take into account the stories that are in the papers". DIA does not follow up on the response from their colleague, but proceeds with the adoption without further questions.

Doubts about consent

In addition to conflicting stories about where the children came from, there are also two cases where the DIA is made aware that there are problems or doubts about who has consented to the child being adopted away. 

In one of the cases, biological parents are not named in the child's case, although according to the police report it is known who the parents are. It appears from DIA's internal correspondence that an employee asks the colleague in Madagascar for more information and answers as to why the names are not in the papers. 

To that, the colleague in Madagascar replies that "this is a police investigation, and that type of information will never be disclosed to ACAM (the Malagasy authorities responsible for adoptions, ed.) to protect the child". Again, DIA chooses not to follow up on that information, and neither DIA nor the adoptee therefore gets to know who the biological parents are.

A similar problem is also seen in another case from 2022. In the child's papers, there are two interpretations of who has agreed to the child being adopted away. Despite the uncertainty, DIA submits the case for approval to the Danish Appeals Board, which notices the irregularities.

A more than 400-page file inspection from the Danish Appeals Board, which explains the process leading up to the closure of Madagascar, shows that the Danish Appeals Board asks DIA who actually consented to the adoption.

They emphasize in this connection that the DIA has previously stated that the biological mother did not appear in court in connection with the orphanage manager's consent to the adoption, but in the Danish translation of the judgment it appears that the biological mother actually appeared in court. 

DIA never answers the question, but instead writes to the Danish Appeals Agency that they will not proceed with the case anyway. This happens six months after the child was proposed for adoption through DIA. 

Incomplete identity 

According to research, incorrect or missing information about an adopted child's parentage can cause problems later in life. 

A study from 2019 by researcher and anthropologist Sofie Henze-Pedersen shows, among other things, that some adoptees had difficulty creating "complete" identities for themselves.

"Having knowledge about or access to knowledge about one's biological origins can for some adoptees be an important part of their identity and self-understanding", writes Sofie Henze-Pedersen in an email, "and if that knowledge is lacking, some adoptees express a ' the gap' or incomplete identity”. 

Sofie Henze-Pedersen emphasizes that the adoptee's desire to know their biological origin does not necessarily take up so much of their entire life, but can change and fluctuate in line with major life events.

Professor of sociology at Roskilde University Hanne Warming came to a similar conclusion in connection with a study she conducted on behalf of the Swedish Appeals Board in 2018. The report suggested that there should be greater openness in adoptions.

"The story of our life story is important for our identity formation. When we do not have access to sources for our own history, it can be experienced as 'loss' and uncertainty about who you are", says Hanne Warming. 

They are responsible for adoptions in Denmark

Poor system 

Since 2007, Danish couples have been able to adopt children from Madagascar, which is one of the world's poorest countries and where corruption is widespread .

In 2022, however, the Appeals Board will become aware of the conditions in the eastern state. In a so-called letter of concern, the Danish Appeals Board writes to the DIA that they are concerned about whether adoptions from Madagascar take place in the best interests of the child and at an "ethically and professionally sound level".

A few months later – in December – DIA responds to the Danish Appeals Board's inquiry that, in connection with their visit to Madagascar, they got the impression that ACAM has the resources required for adoptions to be carried out in accordance with rules and conventions. 

However, the Norwegian newspaper VG got a different impression when they visited ACAM in Madagascar in October this year. Here they are met by five employees with two computers, and where part of the case processing takes place with pen and paper. 

To VG, one of the case handlers at ACAM says that "mistakes can happen". 

“If we come across something that is not right, we will investigate the matter again. We work on many cases and will not always catch all errors, but I think it is rare that they get through", says the case manager. 

Continued with adoptions

Despite the fact that DIA is informed of errors in the papers – and that in some cases biological parents are not indicated in the papers – they continue to send adoption cases to the Danish Appeals Board. 

They do so at a time when the Danish Appeals Authority otherwise prohibits DIA from mediating more adoptions from Madagascar. In March this year, the Danish Appeals Board wrote to the DIA that they intend to recommend to the Minister of Social Affairs, Housing and the Elderly Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil to close all adoptions from the island state, and in this connection the DIA must "ensure that all already sent cases be put on hold”.

Two days later, DIA replies that there are two cases that will be affected by the closure, and that it will be in the child's best interest to continue the cases. They therefore ask the Board of Appeal to proceed with them. 

Danwatch has reviewed the children's cases, and both contain three different stories about the children's lives. 

The Danish Appeals Board makes the same discovery and chooses to stop them once and for all in April. In an email, they write to DIA that the discrepancies "are of such a serious nature that, in the light of our concerns in the notice of March 30, 2023, there is no prospect of further disclosure of the cases". 

“Problematic”

The fact that DIA continues with the adoptions despite obvious errors in the cases is a problem, according to experts. 

Associate Professor Hanne Hartoft from the Department of Law at Aalborg University cannot go into the specific cases, but believes that it is "problematic" if an adoption agency is listening to relevant information. 

"If you, as an adoption agent, turn a blind eye and deliberately fail to investigate questions that are relevant, it can be deeply problematic. The case can change from being an adoption, which is done for legal social reasons, to being regular human trafficking", writes Hanne Hartoft in an email. 

In addition, Hanne Hartoft points out that a number of conventions recognize the fundamental need to know one's origins, not least in relation to our identity formation. 

"We see this in articles 7 and 8 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child", writes Hanne Hartoft. 

Denmark acceded to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991 and states that children have the right to "maintain their identity, including citizenship, name and family relationship as recognized by law and without illegal interference".

According to professor of social law at the University of Copenhagen Stine Jørgensen, it is a problem that DIA does not itself stop and investigate the conditions in Madagascar. 

"It seems strange that it is not the DIA itself that raises this question and decides to investigate further, because that is what they are obliged to do", says Stine Jørgensen. "There are now many examples of this mediation practice taking place unregulated, and this case also calls into question the legality of the adoptions that have taken place". 

DIA: Don't let it happen again

Danwatch has asked the director at DIA, Kaspar Bro Larsen, why they continue with an adoption case, even though they are made aware that there may be doubts about consent. 

We have also asked them why they continue to send adoption cases to the Danish Appeals Board, knowing that you cannot rely on the information in the children's cases. 

Kaspar Bro Larsen cannot comment on the specific children's cases, but acknowledges "that there has been a breach of trust". 

"There is no doubt that a breach of trust has been created here, which we must work intensively to restore. There is, for example, potential in improving this system by opening up better international cooperation between states", says Kaspar Bro Larsen. 

In this connection, he emphasizes that DIA must now take stock of the situation and find out how they can improve their work processes. 

"We are in the middle of a long, cool move forward in this organization, which will ensure that such things do not happen again", says Kaspar Bro Larsen.