Inquiry Committee: Strong criticism of Norwegian adoptions

The Adoption Committee criticizes both the Norwegian authorities and the Adoption Forum association for adoptions from Ecuador and Colombia.

For one year, the adoption committee has been investigating foreign adoptions to Norway.

The committee's task is to determine whether Norwegian authorities have had sufficient control over international adoptions and to uncover whether illegal adoptions to Norway have occurred.

– We take what we have found seriously, said committee leader Camilla Bernt when she handed over the report to Minister of Children and Family Affairs Kjersti Toppe (Sp).

Committee chair Camilla Bernt and Minister for Children Kjersti Toppe Photo: Helge Mikalsen / VG

The committee submitted a partial report that focuses only on adoptions from Ecuador and Colombia. The rest of the investigation will be released towards the end of the year.

– We will not go into individual stories - but with one exception, said Camilla Bernt.

She then spent much of her presentation reviewing the story of Camilla Austbø from Skien.

VG has previously revealed that Camilla Austbø   was kidnapped and adopted to Norway.

When the biological mother in Ecuador returned home from work, her three-year-old daughter had disappeared without a trace. The mother managed to track down her daughter in Norway and demanded that the adoption be annulled.

Then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the organization Adoption Forum transferred  sums of money to Ecuador  – and the demand to get the girl back disappeared. In a document VG has seen, it was called a "Latin solution".

The committee makes a harsh judgment on Norwegian authorities for their handling of Camilla's adoption:

– This is contrary to the Public Administration Act and fundamental principles of the best interests of the child, said the committee's chair, Camilla Bernt.

– The Ministry of Foreign Affairs must have known what the financial support was for. The Norwegian authorities were therefore open to that type of solution, but deliberately did not want to be informed.

The committee believes it is likely that Camilla was kidnapped before she was adopted to Norway.

Camilla's adoptive parents have previously said that they had no idea about Camilla's background. They thought everything was fine with the adoption.

The committee also harshly criticizes the Norwegian adoption association Adopsjonsforum and believes they failed to investigate the adoptions from Ecuador well enough.

Adoption Forum is the organization that, on behalf of the Norwegian authorities, took care of all the practical aspects of the adoptions from Ecuador.

– We believe that the authorities and the Adoption Forum would primarily limit the harmful effects of their own reputation and work to continue the adoption cooperation. We have found no trace of discussion about whether Camilla should have been sent back to her biological mother in Ecuador, said Bernt.

– I sincerely apologize.

The Adoption Forum responds to the criticism from the committee as follows: 

– First and foremost, we would like to express our deepest regret for the injustice that has been done to those involved. The Adoption Forum takes the criticism very seriously. The stories have a strong impact on today's board and employees, says CEO Sidsel Elie Aas.  

Minister for Children Kjersti Toppe said that an investigation into international adoptions should have been done earlier.

– We must take these findings and the criticism that has come very seriously - also against the authorities' handling. It is an overall priority for Norwegian authorities that adoptions should be safe. But the report indicates that the Norwegian system has not been safe enough, said Toppe.

The committee also believes that there has been a risk that mothers in Colombia have been pressured to give their children away for adoption - and that paying for adoption through donations to private orphanages is problematic.

• The committee believes that the Adoption Forum should have clearly informed Norwegian adoption authorities that in some cases the donations were transferred directly to accounts in a third country.
• The committee believes that it is particularly reprehensible that the Adoption Forum provided inadequate information about advance payment of donations to Norwegian authorities upon direct request.

VG has previously written about illegal adoption donations - and that Norwegian authorities were notified of this repeatedly.

Sidsel Elie Aas of the Adoption Forum emphasizes that they have contributed to uncovering what emerges by opening their archives to the committee - and that the Adoption Forum appreciates the thoroughness that the committee is now showing. 

– It is important for us to emphasize that today there are completely different rules and routines that apply to international adoptions, something the investigation committee also highlighted in connection with Colombia, which is the country we are collaborating with today, says Aas.

The full report on intercountry adoption is expected in December 2025.