Ministry: 'Most serious crisis in ten years'
Minister of Social Affairs and Housing Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil (S) expresses great understanding for the difficult situation in which the 36 families who are currently waiting to adopt are in
Earlier in the day, Denmark's only mediator of international adoptions, Danish International Adoption (DIA), announced that they are stopping their work.
It was decided at an extraordinary board meeting in DIA and takes place after the organization has been hit by a number of sanctions from both the Danish Appeals Agency and the Ministry of Social Affairs, Housing and the Elderly, which is responsible for supervising the adoption agency.
And the latter ministry makes no secret of the fact that this is a serious situation in a press release on Tuesday afternoon.
'It is the most serious crisis in the area of adoption in the past ten years,' they write.
Right now, 36 applicants are on the waiting list for adoption, and Minister of Social Affairs and Housing Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil (S) expresses understanding for the affected couples in the press release.
- I have great understanding of the difficult situation that the families who are waiting to adopt are now in. It is an unhappy situation. Mediation for international adoption is about people and human destinies. When we help a child to a new family on the other side of the globe, there must be the necessary assurance that the adoption is carried out properly in relation to the biological parents, she says.
No other solution
In the press release that DIA sent out earlier in the day on Tuesday, deputy chairman of DIA's board Anne Friis stated that it was a difficult decision to make.
- The area of international adoption can no longer, under the current conditions in Denmark, be run by an NGO like ours, she said.
The decision was made in the wake of DIA being informed by the Danish Appeals Agency on Friday that the agency would recommend to the Minister of Social Affairs and Housing to stop the mediation from DIA's largest mediation country, South Africa.
On Monday, the ministry's department then announced that DIA's five other country agreements with Taiwan, the Philippines, India, Thailand and the Czech Republic will be suspended for a period of time.
In addition, the number of adoptions has fallen drastically in recent years, and the low number of adoptions combined with a decrease in the number of cooperating countries now means that it no longer holds. This was stated by board member Mikael Baden in connection with the publication of the decision.