This mother was told that her daughter was stillborn.
Updated 07 Oct. 2024 AT 1:26 PM
The black car slows down and stops in front of a low brick house.
The house's brown front doors are open, but Natalie Montaño (35) stays inside the car.
Right now, she is regretting the Facebook post she made three years ago. The post that has led her from Oslo to this house in Colombia.
The body feels numb. Disconnected, like a shell.
A woman in her 50s comes out of the house, towards the car.
She tries to look into the dark windows.
Neighbors go out into the scorching sun to see what's going on. Someone follows the woman back into the house and closes the doors.
After a while, Natalie comes out onto the sidewalk. She falls to her crouch and breaks down.
"I'm going to meet the woman who gave birth to me, but has never seen me, and we are dependent on an interpreter to even talk together."
Finally, Natalie gets up, opens the door, and enters.
Lottery winners?
Being adopted to Norway is like winning the lottery, it has been said.
In that case, there are around 21,000 such lottery winners in Norway.
But in recent years, the idea of a lottery win has been challenged. Of a number of critical issues in the media. And of reports from several countries that have scrutinized their adoption practices.
Exploitation and system failures have abounded. The Netherlands' devastating 2021 report led the country to recently ban international adoptions .
Will Norway do the same?
In the last year, the Norwegian authorities have closed almost all opportunities to adopt from abroad.
Today, in practice, there is only one country from which it is possible to adopt: Colombia.
Click here to read the case in Spanish/Haz clic aquí para leer el artículo en español.
The forgotten post
"Your parents are not your real parents", said the other children when she was growing up in Oslo.
In elementary school, Natalie Montaño gained a conscious relationship with the fact that she was different.
She stood out in the crowd. The parents who picked her up from school didn't look like her.
She also has good memories from growing up, but Natalie has chosen to have limited contact with certain members of her adoptive family.
Natalie has been diagnosed with complex PTSD as an adult. According to the health documents, the diagnosis is primarily due to neglect in childhood.
NRK has contacted the adoptive parents. They are aware that this case is being published and have read what Natalie says about them. Read what they answer at the bottom of this case.
Natalie has not been particularly concerned with finding her biological family. She made an attempt in her youth, but it did not lead to anything.
But in her early 30s, she came across a Facebook page where adoptees were calling for their biological families.
"I can try," thought Natalie.
She wrote a short text and uploaded three pictures of herself.
Then she forgot the entire post.
Three years later, she suddenly received a message on Facebook from a man in Colombia.
He wrote that he knew her biological mother.
The signature
She pressed her thumb at the bottom of the tightly written sheet.
A check-in paper, she thought.
The 22-year-old could neither read nor write. The fingerprint was her signature.
The date on the paper was December 5, 1988. Luz Marina Palomino Montaño stood heavily pregnant in front of the counter of a maternity home in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia.
She was far away from family and friends. The child's father was no longer in her life.
She was placed in a room with narrow beds in a row, separated only by thin curtains. The women were not allowed to talk to each other and there were areas where they were not allowed to go.
She felt isolated. It was also strangely quiet.
"I don't hear any babies crying," she thought.
The lady who washed at the maternity home said to her:
- Many pregnant women come here, and leave empty-handed again.
- Where are your children?
When the contractions started, Luz Marina was placed on a bed. A large curtain separated her from those who helped during the birth.
After a few hours, the daughter came into the world behind the curtain. Luz Marina could not see her.
She sat up in bed, ready to put the baby on her breast.
- You have to wait, said the employees.
The hours passed. She received food and care after the birth, but not her child in her arms.
- Where are your children? she asked the other women in the room.
- We don't know, they answered.
A man appeared in the doorway. "Luz Marina?" he said.
- It's me.
- Miss Luz, you had a daughter. But she was stillborn.
The "dead" babies
What if you received a death message that wasn't true?
In the summer of 1981, seven years before Luz Marina arrived at the maternity home, Colombia was rocked by an adoption scandal.
A former employee in the country's child welfare services was arrested and accused of selling over 500 children - disguised as legal adoption.
The whole thing is said to have been possible through a collaboration between corrupt judges, directors at five orphanages and employees at two hospitals in the capital.
At the maternity clinics, mothers were told that their child was stillborn. If necessary, they were shown the body of a newborn child, according to a diplomatic report NRK has read.
In reality, the children were very much alive, and were later adopted to other countries - including Sweden.
The case received a lot of attention. In Norway, as many as 35 newspapers wrote about the scandal, NRK's archive search shows.
The scandal in 1981 was discussed in many Norwegian newspapers, including VG, Trønder-Avisa, Sunnmøre Arbeiderblad and Hamar Dagblad.
Graphics: Facsimile
But did the scandal have any consequences for Norway?
NRK has read historical meeting minutes and newsletters from the state-appointed Council for International Adoptions.
From what NRK can see, there were no changes in Norwegian adoption routines as a result of the scandal in Colombia.
Sidsel Elie Aas, general manager of the association Adoption Forum , says this to NRK:
- The scandal in 1981 did not involve Norway at all. It was about private adoptions to other countries. In other words, adoptions outside the associations and the official system in Colombia, she says to NRK.
All adoptions from Colombia to Norway since the 1970s have been mediated by the Adoption Forum, in collaboration with child protection in Colombia, and with permission from the Norwegian authorities.
Aas emphasizes that it is difficult to say concretely how things were over forty years ago.
- The way I interpret our papers, we followed the system.
Inspection trip
The year after Colombia's adoption scandal had become known internationally, two representatives from the Norwegian authorities traveled to the country for inspection.
The Norwegian authorities have, in fact, controlled the adoption practice.
In Bogotá, they met the representatives of the leadership of Colombia's child welfare. They also visited orphanages and child welfare regional offices around the country.
NRK has read the report from the trip.
It does not mention in one word the scandal from the previous year, which rocked Colombia. Nor does it discuss whether stolen children can be adopted to Norway.
On the contrary – the report concludes that everything is in order:
"Not once did we have any reason to suspect personal gain involved in the work".
Juan Carlos Primero
The married couple who walked down the aisle on the plane at Easter 1994 left Norway as childless.
When they returned from Colombia, they had become the parents of a three-year-old boy: Juan Carlos Primero.
The last name was his mother's, while the first name was given to him by the child welfare agency in Colombia. "For administrative reasons".
In the papers the Norwegian adoptive parents received, there was only a little information about his biological mother.
"She showed little interest in the boy and expressed that she already has one-year-old twins, is very poor and has difficulty taking care of this second child."
Then she disappeared.
"The boy's mother never returned and could not be located at the location where she said she lived, leading to the boy being declared abandoned."
Child welfare services advertised in the newspaper and asked the mother to sign up. Twice – with a picture of the boy.
No one signed up.
The boy ended up in an orphanage and was approved for adoption.
But something messed up.
When child protection took over the care of the boy, they found no birth certificate. They wrote to the hospital where, according to the papers, he was born, asking them "to issue a birth certificate or proof of live birth".
After four weeks, the hospital replied:
"I must inform you that a thorough search of our archives did not yield any positive results ," they wrote.
The hospital had no trace of the boy.
New inspection trip
In 1988, two representatives from the Norwegian authorities got back on the plane to Colombia.
The adoption routines were to be re-inspected.
This time they visited three orphanages in Bogotá. From here, several children had been adopted to Norway. About the one orphanage, the report states:
"There was no one present who could inform us in any detail about today's operations, but the general impression is positive."
Nor did the Norwegian representatives meet any managers at two other orphanages. It might not be so strange.
The visits were added to a public holiday.
- Can you draw her?
The boy that the hospital in Colombia found no trace of was given a new name in Norway: Olav Markus Førli.
He grew up in Larvik. Learned to ski and played football, like the rest of the boys in the neighbourhood.
One day little Olav Markus came up to his mother and asked:
- What do you think my Colombian mom looks like? Can you draw her?
The mother took out a piece of paper and drew on it.
- My parents were good at encouraging my dual affiliation. All questions about the adoption were welcome, he says to NRK.
When he turned 18, Olav Markus was handed the folder with the adoption papers.
There he saw the name of his biological mother for the first time. "Lucia Primero".
The last conversation
He read on. She already had twins. So Olav Markus had siblings in Colombia!
But why didn't Lucia want to keep him – child number three?
Olav Markus could not put the question aside.
A few years later, he sat at the bedside of his cancer-stricken adoptive mother.
In one of their last conversations, they talked about his adoption.
- She supported me in trying to find my biological parents, if I wanted to, he says to NRK.
Olav Markus Førli in Oslo.
Photo: Javier Ernesto Auris Chavez / NRK
After his adoptive mother died, he contacted an organization that assists adoptees from Colombia.
- I said: Here are my papers. Good luck!
Six months later, an answer ticked in.
Not dead though
Luz Marina could not sleep, and stood in the kitchen in the dark, trembling. A relative had sent her a photo from Facebook, of a young woman who lived in Norway.
"That's your daughter," the relative wrote under the photo.
Luz Marina had always had hope that the daughter whom the man at the maternity home had said was dead, was still alive.
She dreamed of seeing her one day.
Now she had no doubts. It was her daughter in the picture.
"I couldn't believe that such miracles could happen."
Her cell phone didn't stop ringing. The secret she had kept for over 30 years spread quickly.
The extended family wanted to know: “Are you going to meet her? When will she come?”.
Someone looking
Lucia Primero's phone rang several times. The voice on the other end said something that didn't make sense.
- You have a son in Norway who is looking for you.
What was this something? A form of bullshit?
Lucia Primero knew well where her children lived. None of them had moved to Norway.
But the caller didn't give up.
- Have you given birth to a child in the city of Cali?
Cali is one of Colombia's largest cities with over two million inhabitants.
Photo: Javier Ernesto Auris Chavez / NRK
Yes, that was true.
Could it be...?
No, that was not possible. Because he was dead.
In the end, however, Lucia allowed herself to be persuaded and agreed to a video meeting with the person who was looking for her.
On the screen she saw a guy with curly hair and a dark complexion. He had the same freckles as several in Lucia's family.
He actually looked like one of her sons. Sticky corpse.
All doubts evaporated.
- It's my son.
Life built on a lie
:Congratulations on the day!
The birthday message ticked on her mobile phone on November 8, 2023, but for the first time, Natalie Montaño didn't feel like it was a day she wanted to celebrate.
- On this day I was stolen from my mother.
Natalie can be standing at the vegetable counter at Rema 1000 when it hits her that she really shouldn't be here.
She was to live a different life on the other side of the globe, in Colombia.
- My life, the whole foundation, has been built on a lie, she says.
On paper, Natalie is still adopted, but now she sees herself as stolen.
- Can I actually be both at the same time?
After she found her biological family, it feels like standing in the middle of an empty, dark airplane hangar, behind frosted glass.
- On either side of me are both my families, but I am alone. I don't quite belong to the adoptive family, and not quite to the biological family either. I am nobody's.
- Money
Susan Branco, associate professor at Palo Alto University in the US, is one of the few who has researched illegal adoptions in Colombia.
One of the adoptees in the sample she has researched also discovered that the biological parents in Colombia thought she was stillborn.
According to Branco, child protection in Colombia has estimated that 50,000 children have been adopted to other countries in the last thirty years.
- We do not know how many of them were affected by the dead baby method, she says.
Susan Branco, associate professor at Palo Alto University in the US, at her home in Arlington, Virginia.
Photo: Scott Suchman
- Is it a known method?
- The method is not widely known outside the international adoption environment, but that is starting to change now. Especially after the Netherlands came up with its investigation report in 2021.
According to Branco, the method is not only used in Colombia.
- Research from Chile confirms the use of the dead baby method there as well. The country is now in the process of finding out what happened by setting up a truth and compensation commission, she says.
- What was the motivation behind the dead baby scam?
- Money. Colombian authorities received much more money from Western families than Colombian families could pay. It was a widespread belief at the time that whites would be better parents than Colombian families.
- I was looking forward to it
At the bus terminal in the big city of Cali, a woman gets off the bus. It is hot and humid, both outside and inside.
Lucia Primero (57) has traveled several hours from the countryside.
Now she wants to tell NRK what happened 34 years ago.
When labor began several weeks before her due date, Lucia received help at the local health center before being driven by a nurse to a hospital in Cali.
- I had never been to that city before.
She was placed in a wheelchair and transported straight to the delivery room. Her son was born here.
- I was looking forward to holding him.
But then a nurse entered the room. Without a baby in arms.
- The nurse told me that the child died during birth, says Lucia.
She didn't understand how that could be possible.
- The explanation was that he was born too early, and that there were complications along the way.
The staff offered her to see the boy.
Lucia tells NRK that she was shown a baby lying motionless in an incubator. She perceived that the staff told her it was her son.
- I thought it was him. I knew he was premature, but never thought he would die.
Lucia went home from the hospital in mourning.
- Nobody asked me
NRK shows her the children's welfare notice in Colombian newspapers with pictures of Olav Markus, who at the time was called Juan Carlos.
Lucia looks at the picture for a long time.
- I have never seen this before, she says.
- It says that child protection was looking for you?
- No one contacted me or my family. No one asked if I wanted to adopt him away. The hospital had all the information about me. Why didn't they ask at our local health centre?
- Did you get a death certificate for your child from the hospital?
- No, not as I remember. In retrospect, I have thought that if they thought he was dead, I should have received papers to that effect.
Lucia says that Olav Markus' biological father has passed away.
She is willing to take a DNA test, paid for by NRK. In Norway, Olav Markus has agreed to the same.
The DNA samples are delivered to Oslo University Hospital for analysis.
- Forward into the light
Colombia has been one of the most popular countries for Norwegians to adopt from.
Over 4,000 children have come to Norway from here.
Only South Korea has delivered more children to Norway.
Last year, Minister for Children and Families Kjersti Toppe (Sp) ordered an investigation into Norwegian adoption history.
- I want to bring to light what has happened, she said.
Minister for Children and Families Kjersti Toppe (Sp) in a meeting with the adoption associations on 30 April this year.
Photo: Patrick da Silva Sæther / NRK
The task was given to two professors, a researcher, a court judge and a public prosecutor.
In a short time, the investigators will board the plane to Colombia.
They must look for illegalities and ethical violations.
Facts about adoption from abroad:
- Since 1970, around 21,000 people have been adopted from other countries to Norway.
- Adoptions have mainly taken place via three associations: Adoption Forum, Verdens Barn and Inor Adopt.
- These associations have mediated adoptions from a total of 39 countries.
- These have mediated adoptions with permission from the Norwegian authorities.
- In the past year, a number of permits have been withdrawn or not renewed after they expired.
- In practice, only Colombia can be adopted from today.
- The Ministry of Children and Families is processing several complaints from the adoption associations about decisions such as withdrawing or not renewing adoption permits from several countries.
Sources: Statistics Norway, Adoption Forum, Inor Adopt, Verdens Barn, Bufdir, Ministry of Children and Families
The first meeting
The black car slows down and stops in front of a low brick house.
The music in the car is turned off.
Now it will happen.
She falls to her crouch and collapses on the pavement.
On the inside of the brown outer doors, Luz Marina waits calmly.
But the truth is that earlier in the day she had to go to the doctor to get a sedative injection.
Then the doors open and Natalie enters.
Luz Marina gets to hold her daughter for the first time.
- Thank you for coming here, she whispers.
They hug several times before Luz Marina puts a hand on Natalie's shoulder and they walk together to the sofa.
Relatives who live in the house pass by behind the back of the sofa, but no one disturbs them.
- You are so pretty! says Luz Marina when they get a good look at each other.
Eventually they discover that they have the same hands, the same long fingers.
Natalie has several gifts with her: pictures of herself as a baby and a silver piece of jewelery with two small hearts.
They represent Luz Marina and Natalie and her children in Norway.
Then Natalie takes out a document. The one with fingerprints at the bottom. Luz Marina recognizes it, even though it has been over 30 years.
But it is not a check-in paper, as she thought when she was heavily pregnant at the maternity home.
Natalie reads aloud:
"I declare that my daughter (...) can be given up for adoption domestically or abroad, with the aim of giving her the best possible protection morally, spiritually, physically, materially and financially (...) This handover is voluntary"
It is the first time Luz Marina has heard these words.
- I didn't know what I was signing, she says.
- Many more
The date on the document is December 5, 1988, almost four weeks after Natalie was born.
But Luz Marina confirms that she was still pregnant when she signed.
- It makes me so angry, says Natalie.
Luz Marina says that she did not give Natalie a name. The staff at the maternity home did so, after they announced that she was stillborn.
- I have no words to describe it here. How many other mothers have met the same fate? Natalie asks.
- Many more, replies Luz Marina.
NRK has contacted child protection in Colombia , which has gone through Natalie's case again. Read their response in the box below:
This is answered by child protection and the orphanage in Colombia
Child welfare in Colombia (ICBF):
Martha Patricia Manrique Soacha, deputy director of adoptions at Child Welfare in Colombia, acknowledges that Natalie and Luz Marina's story does not match what is in the papers.
But she emphasizes that the procedures were followed in the child protection agency's handling:
- A review of the adoption case shows that ICBF, in accordance with current legislation. Among other things, published information about the child in the local newspaper and included information about the child's biological mother, date of birth and place of birth, and encouraged people who knew about the case to come forward and participate actively in the protection of the child.
Soacha refers to the document with fingerprints, where Luz Marina Montaño declares her desire to adopt her daughter.
- It is important to point out that ICBF does not have the technical tools or expertise to determine the identity of the person who signed this document.
The answer to the orphanage:
NRK has also contacted the orphanage where Natalie lived when she was adopted. Daniel F. Castrillón, managing director, writes that for more than fifty years they have carried out hundreds of domestic and international adoptions "in accordance with the legislation in force at the time each adoption process was carried out".
- What is their comment on what the mother says?
- We cannot comment on the events you describe, as this is solely based on the statement of the person involved, which must be compared with the documentary records kept by the ICBF.
- Were you involved in illegal adoptions?
- Pursuant to Article 19 of Act 1755 of 2015 (CPACA), we refrain from answering this question as the request is disrespectful. However, I would like to add that all adoption processes handled by the foundation have followed the procedures set forth in Colombian law at the time the processes took place.
- Are you aware of other cases where children were adopted abroad after the mothers received false information, such as that their newborn was stillborn, when in reality the child was alive?
- We have no record of any complaints or claims similar to what you are asking about. We are also not aware of any national authorities investigating or investigating anything related to this issue.
- Would you have kept me?
It only takes a few days for Oslo University Hospital to analyze the DNA samples of Lucia and Olav Markus.
Are they mother and son?
The report shows a DNA match. The probability that Lucia is the mother of Olav Markus is "at least 99.9999%".
Last year, Olav Markus traveled to Colombia and met Lucia for the first time.
- Suddenly I was face to face with the woman who had been a fantasy figure for me all my life, he tells NRK.
For Lucia, the meeting with Olav Markus was tearful.
- I was both happy and sad. He cried, I cried, my family cried. He has become a great man. But we have lost so many years together.
Finally, Olav Markus could ask the question he had wondered about for so many years: Why did you adopt me away?
The answer was not as expected.
Lucia didn't even know he was alive.
Olav Markus had one more question:
- Would you have kept me, if you could?
The answer came immediately:
- Yes.
NRK has contacted child protection in Colombia about Olav Markus' story. Read their response in the box below.
This is how child protection in Colombia responds to Olav Markus' story
- For the ICBF, at this time, it is not possible to determine a different version of the events than the one reported in the documents, says Martha Patricia Manrique Soacha, deputy director of adoptions in child protection in Colombia.
- It can be assumed that Lucia Primero knew where her child was placed while receiving the necessary protection. Because of her absence, the administrative authority made a protection decision to declare the child abandoned, after almost two years in institutions, she says.
She points out that a local court ensured that all conditions and legal procedures were followed.
- This meant that the Colombian child protection agency had to follow and carry out the actions that the judicial authority deemed necessary, she says.
Soacha believes that the documents in the case harmonize.
- Therefore, it is not clear, as Mrs Primero claims, that the information is incorrect.
- Are you aware of other similar cases?
- At the moment we are not aware of cases from the same time and place that are similar to the events you have described.
- No one could help me
Luz Marina is wearing the silver necklace with two hearts connected, which she got from Natalie.
It is not easy for her to talk about what she has experienced, and how it has shaped her life over the past thirty years.
- I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. The only people who knew about my experiences at the maternity home were the children I had later, says Luz Marina.
During her next two pregnancies, she did not seek health care, fearing that what happened to Natalie would happen again.
- What was it like to hear Natalie read out the adoption declaration?
- I thought I was going to die.
According to Luz Marina, meeting Natalie gave her inner peace for the first time.
- I thank God that I had the opportunity to meet her. There are other mothers who die without meeting their sons or daughters, she says.
THIS IS HOW NRK INVESTIGATED
Natalie's case:
NRK has gone through the Norwegian and Colombian adoption documents in Natalie's case.
Luz Marina claims that the documents contain several errors about her, including incorrect date of birth and city of birth.
NRK has checked the population register in the town where, according to the adoption papers, she comes from. According to the population register, she has never been registered there.
Natalie and Luz Marina's second daughter in Colombia paid for and took a DNA test herself before NRK made this case. It confirms that they have the same mother. NRK has seen the DNA analysis.
The maternity home where Luz Marina says she gave birth to Natalie no longer exists, as far as NRK knows.
NRK has contacted the orphanage where Natalie lived until the adoption, in addition to the child welfare services in Colombia.
Olav Markus' case:
NRK has gone through the Colombian adoption documents.
NRK has paid for DNA analysis of Lucia Primero and Olav Markus Førli carried out by Oslo University Hospital.
NRK has contacted the hospital in Colombia where Lucia says she gave birth to Olav Markus. The hospital has not responded to NRK's inquiry that she was wrongly informed that her son had died.
NRK has contacted the orphanage where Olav Markus lived before the adoption. The orphanage has not responded to NRK's inquiry.
Reports:
NRK has read a total of seven Norwegian inspection reports from trips to Colombia in the period 1979-2017.
NRK has tried to get hold of the authors of the two reports cited in this article, from 1982 and 1988. For various reasons, it has not been possible to get them to speak.
NRK has received permission from Adoption Forums to read their historical annual reports and member magazines, as well as historical meeting minutes of the state-appointed Council for International Adoptions.
NRK has also read historical media cases from several countries and investigation reports from recent years from various countries.
Aid:
Freelance journalist Miriam Forero Ariza has carried out investigations in Colombia on behalf of NRK.
Elena Di Giovanna was an interpreter during NRK's interviews in Colombia.
The time after
Back in Norway, Natalie describes the trip to Colombia as traumatizing and existential.
She spent less time with Luz Marina than originally planned.
- I was not fully present for 85 percent of the trip. It was simply too difficult.
Although the trip to Colombia is now behind her, she believes that it will never be something she will finish.
- It is not like the adoption process stops when all the papers have been stamped. I will always be adopted. I don't come from it.
Natalie can periodically struggle a lot with suicidal thoughts. It's been that way since childhood. She goes to treatment for trauma.
- I sleep badly, have nightmares and am very tired. It's not just because of the trip, but it reinforced it, she says.
From several hundred to almost none
In the past, several hundred children were adopted to Norway each year.
Now almost no one comes.
In the past year, the Directorate for Children, Youth and Families (Bufdir) has closed almost all opportunities to adopt from abroad. They believe the risk of illegal adoptions is too great.
The adoption associations completely disagree with Bufdir and have complained about the decisions.
The complaints have not been fully processed.
- There has been an impression that the adoption associations have not done their job. We have that, says Sidsel Elie Aas in Adoption Forum to NRK.
- Pill rotten
Natalie and Olav Markus have different opinions about adoption abroad.
- It is a violation of human rights, regardless of how the adoptee gets it. I have always believed that, long before I discovered the truth about my own adoption, says Natalie.
She believes Norway should stop all adoptions from other countries.
- Even an adoption is legal, I think the system is fundamentally unethical. It is primarily designed for parents who want children, not for children who need parents, says Natalie.
She believes she has come out of the "adoption fog" and has been involved in the debate about the adoption system in recent years.
- The system is rotten, even if it is never so full of good intentions, she says.
Olav Markus, on the other hand, believes adoption should continue, if the system is improved.
- I am not against adoption as long as it is done in a proper way and things are checked. And money should not be a factor.
He is saddened that he was robbed of the opportunity to grow up with his family in Colombia.
- At the same time, I am very happy for the life I have, and grateful for wonderful parents and siblings in Norway. I feel conflicting thoughts and feelings, he says.
- Terrible
His adoptive father, Henning Førli, is surprised by what is now coming to light.
He has looked through the adoption papers again after NRK made contact. One of the documents shows that the local court in Cali approved the adoption.
- We dealt with it, he says.
- What do you think about what Lucia Primero tells?
- It's terrible to think about.
- Who do you think is behind it?
- It is difficult to know. Adoption Forum probably worked in good faith. There must be someone in Colombia behind this.
- Do you feel cheated?
- Yes, when you ask, I have to admit it.
Welcomes the investigation
Adoption Forum mediated the adoptions of Natalie and Olav Markus to Norway.
General manager Sidsel Elie Aas says their stories make an impression on her.
- But I cannot comment on individual cases, she says.
On a general basis, Aas believes that if a criminal act has occurred before the adoption, it does not necessarily mean that the adoption itself is illegal.
- Crime is a matter for the judiciary in the country. As long as you have followed all laws and regulations and tried to find the child's identity and family, the adoption is not illegal.
Aas emphasizes that the legislation for adoption has steadily improved over the past thirty years, and refers to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Hague Convention for International Adoption.
At the same time, she believes that the quality of the Norwegian authorities' supervisory work has sometimes been too poor. She is positive about the ongoing investigation.
- We hope it can help uncover any illegalities and irregularities in connection with adoptions we have mediated.
- Do you want to do something about Olav Markus and Natalie, their adoptive parents or biological mothers?
- We must be allowed to return to that after the investigation has been completed.
- What responsibility do you have?
- I will not assume any responsibility until there has been an investigation that documents that we have done something wrong. It is not us, but the Norwegian authorities, who have the overall responsibility.
- Do you know of other similar cases among adoptions you have mediated?
- No, but I am fairly new to the job and do not have an overview of all cases over fifty years.
Happy and proud of
Natalie's adoptive father writes in an email to NRK that he believes Natalie's story is an important contribution to how future adoption policy should be designed:
"Natalie is my daughter whom I am infinitely fond of and very proud of. I have full confidence that what she conveys is justified. There is certainly a lot I could do differently. However, the criticism that may come to my role as a parent I have to endure and take to heart; to hopefully become a wiser person on the last part of my life's journey" .
Natalie's adoptive mother also supports her daughter's involvement, but writes in an email that she is surprised by the criticism:
"Natalie has not previously indicated anything about neglect during her upbringing and therefore the statement comes as a surprise. She is of course free to express her views and say what she thinks. I do not see it as expedient to discuss this further or to comment on family matters in the media and do not wish to make any further comment beyond this".
----------------------------------
Journalist Øyvind Gustavsen is an acquaintance of Natalie Montaño . That is why journalist Johanna Magdalena Husebye interviewed Natalie and followed her in Colombia.