Despite the stop, five hundred parents still have hope for an adopted child

Another five hundred Dutch parents could adopt a child from abroad. An adoption freeze has been announced, but ongoing procedures will not be terminated.

Another five hundred Dutch parents have a chance to bring an adopted child here, the Ministry of Justice confirms to Investico and TV program Zembla . Outgoing Minister Weerwind has not yet terminated these ongoing procedures, despite the adoption freeze he decided on last month.

Two hundred of these parents already have permission in principle, the last step before they are linked to a child. The other parents are not yet that far in the procedure. In recent years, approximately fifty adopted children came to the Netherlands every year. If all procedures continue, this means that adoption will continue for years to come.

Because some parents are allowed to adopt multiple children at once, the numbers can increase even further. Two or even three children regularly come to the Netherlands at the same time to grow up here in a family.

Vulnerable procedures

In 2021, a critical report from the Joustra committee on international adoptions was published. The committee concluded that there have been abuses in the past, but also that the current procedures are still vulnerable. Then minister Dekker (VVD) decided to temporarily stop adoptions. His successor, outgoing minister Weerwind (D66), introduced a new adoption system in 2022 that should prevent abuses as much as possible.

Part of this new system was an investigation into every adoptive country where children come from, and with these investigations in hand, Weerwind decided in November 2022 to allow adoptions from six countries again. One of those countries is Hungary, while adoptions from Hungary are not without controversy. Research by Investico and the TV program Zembla shows that adoption practices in Hungary do not appear to comply with international laws and regulations on important points. This was known within the Ministry of Justice and Security, but was omitted in the final report that the justice department drew up on Hungary in 2022.

Hungary has been the largest adoption country over the past five years. However, the justice system cannot say how many adoptions from Hungary are still ongoing. Outgoing Minister Weerwind announced a 'phasing-out plan' for current adoptions in May. For the parents who are in an adoption procedure, this means that everything will continue as normal for the time being, but after the summer it should become clear what exactly the phase-out plan will look like.

Investico collaborated with the TV program Zembla, the Flemish weekly magazine Knack, the Hungarian medium Atlaszo and the newspaper 24chasa from Bulgaria.