The future remains uncertain and unhappy for international adoption in Denmark

Adoption & Samfund has sent the following to the Folketing Social Committee.The future remains uncertain and unhappy for international adoption in Denmark

Adoption & Society can state that, despite promises of a quick clarification, nothing has been done to correct the inadequate handling of international adoption in Denmark!

On 16 January this year, all international adoptions were urgently suspended by the direct intervention of the then Social Affairs Minister Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil. The promises to the many waiting applicants for adoption were not fulfilled from this date. This also applies to the promises to secure a solution for the many adoptees in Denmark who would like to apply back and have information about their own case. Promises that were made over half a year ago!

In other words, nothing has happened since Danish International Adoption (DIA) announced in mid-January that it would carry out a controlled closure of the organisation.

Adoption & Samfund bears a great responsibility as an interest organization, as we have taken on the important task of fully supporting and helping both individuals and families who want to adopt or have adopted. It necessarily also reaches back in time, because as an organization we look both forward and backward in time.

As a responsible interest organisation, this is of course a definite requirement that we make. We MUST learn from the mistakes of the past, and we MUST clearly understand the distinction between past and present, so that the sins of the past are not confused with the professional state-led approach of today. Future efforts must therefore be adjusted according to the experience gained, so that both national adoption and international adoption, approved by the Danish Appeals Board, continue to be in the right hands, so that the Danish state can guarantee responsible, safe and fact-based adoption in all its aspects.

In Adoption & Society, it is our very clear position that international adoption must be equal to national adoption in a one-string model.

We know that a number of political rapporteurs have put pressure on the former minister and will continue to put pressure on the new minister in the area.

The state already today bears full responsibility for continuous control and approval in the area of ​​adoption, and currently it is the Danish state that has full responsibility for ensuring that the nearly 23,000 adopted to Denmark are not left in a no-man's land where there is no access to information in their own case, and where families hover in uncertainty about their, right this second, ongoing adoption process, in which they have invested everything they have the power and desire to create increased life value and happiness for themselves as well as for others – even across national borders and different cultures.

The state therefore bears the responsibility in every respect to ensure that adoptees have access to help and advice in the recognized PAS scheme, which has today run out of funds and therefore scandalously does not live up to both the ethical and the formal duties in this regard the Danish population, so significant area.

It cannot be right that a well-off and not corrupt country like Denmark abolishes international adoption as an option for the children who do not have a better alternative in their country of origin.

Kind regards

Michael Easter

Foreperson

Adoption & Society