Kristersson on adoptions: Be safe based on what we knew
Children adopted from China may have been the subject of human trafficking, the state adoption investigation has concluded.
Questions have been raised about what Ulf Kristersson knew about the alarms.
According to a board member, discussions were underway about what the money to China was actually used for.
– There was irritation that the fee was not transparent.
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- The government investigation into Sweden's adoptions from China confirms that there have been irregularities that may have involved child trafficking, especially during the 2000s.
- The former chairman of the Adoptionscentrum, Ulf Kristersson, is being questioned about what he knew and why no action was taken despite reports of suspected child trafficking.
- The inquiry recommends that international adoptions be stopped, and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson welcomes the proposal and points out that the state of knowledge was different under his leadership.
"The review shows that there have been irregularities in the adoptions from China . This includes child trafficking."
The government investigation into Sweden's international adoption activities confirms the suspicions that have existed for almost twenty years: Children adopted from China to Sweden, especially during the 2000s, may have been victims of human trafficking.
It was in 2021 that then-Minister of Social Affairs Lena Hallengren (S) appointed the investigation after Dagens Nyheter reviewed adoptions from several countries. Four years later, the results came.
When the investigation was appointed, Ulf Kristersson (M) was the opposition leader with full focus on taking power in the 2022 elections. He had appeared in DN's review in light of the fact that he was chairman of the Adoptionscentrum for a number of years when the suspected child trafficking occurred.
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Kristersson's role questioned
According to the investigation, Chinese authorities have confirmed that four adoptions to Sweden can be linked to revelations made in 2005 about systematic trafficking of children from Hunan province.
"However, it cannot be ruled out that more Swedish adoptions are affected by child trafficking in China," the investigation continues.
The question that has been raised is what Ulf Kristersson knew about child trafficking and why he did not act to pause or stop the adoptions in light of the suspicions.
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In DN's review, Adoptionscentrum's information manager Margret Josefsson confirms that Kristersson was informed about the alarms from China.
– In all major events, the chairman and board were informed, she told DN.
Ulf Kristersson was chairman of the Adoptionscentrum between 2003 and 2005. During that period, a total of 1,332 adoptions from China were carried out, according to the government investigation.
Aftonbladet has sought out former board members, few have been willing to talk about the times that were then.
Served on the board
But one of them, Joakim Wohlfeil, has told us what he remembers from his time on the board twenty years ago. He was involved in the Adoptionscentrum's board between 1996 and 2002, then returned to work between 2005 and 2007.
– I was on the board at the same time as Ulf, he says.
He points out that the organization supported many of the stricter rules for adoptions that were introduced in the 2000s.
He remembers several discussions where the Adoptionscentrum was given the role of explaining that adoption is not about finding children for parents who want to adopt, but about finding families for abandoned children.
But there were some question marks regarding the situation in China at this time.
The government investigation concludes that the donation fees that existed, where prospective parents paid a sum to Chinese authorities before the parents adopted a child, were an incentive to engage in child trafficking. Until 2009, it was 3,000 US dollars, after which the amount was increased to 5,000 US dollars.
"The system has been criticized because it was based on the orphanages being paid per adopted child. There was thus an economic incentive to achieve as many international adoptions as possible," writes the investigator and continues:
“When the supply of children decreased, a market for trafficking in children was created in which individuals, orphanages and authorities were involved.”
“He became aware”
Joakim Wohlfeil says that there were discussions within the Adoptionscentrum in 2005 about China being a closed country and that there was uncertainty about the fee that adoptive parents paid to Chinese orphanages in connection with the adoptions.
– What I remember is that there was irritation that the fee was not transparent. In other countries, you could request an accounting and the orphanages could show operating costs, how many children pass through, you could show what the money went for, he says.
– There were discussions about what the fee in China went for, he continues.
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Joakim Wohlfeil points out that new rules were introduced during this time where the countries' authorities would draw up the agreements between the countries, and that it was almost pointed out to the adoption organizations that it was not their role to question anything once the authorities had reached an agreement.
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Could Ulf Kristersson have avoided discussions about China?
– No, if it was up to the board, he would have been aware of it.
However, Joakim Wohlfeil says that he did not get the impression that Ulf Kristersson wanted to push through adoptions that could be questionable.
– I remember Ulf Kristersson as a formalist who emphasized that it was important to respect and act according to the rules that existed at the time for adoptions.
“We have been clear”
In 2005, the Swedish Agency for International Adoption Affairs, MIA, was established as the authority responsible for supervising international adoptions and negotiations with authorities in other countries, including China.
Meit Camving was the director general of the agency when the Hunan affair broke. In 2006, she demanded answers from Chinese authorities about whether there were children in Sweden who had been adopted on false grounds. The answer she received was that there were four children.
But the state investigation does not rule out that there are more than that.
"The file review shows [...] that the adoptions to Sweden to some extent follow the pattern that existed at the orphanages involved in the Hunan scandal and that was described in a study from 2014: that the children were little girls, that they were found outside the orphanages and other places that biological parents avoided due to the risk of being discovered by the authorities," the investigation states.
Meit Camving says she doesn't remember any details from that time, twenty years ago. But she goes on to say that the authority did in any case review what the money given to various actors was used for.
– I know that we have been clear to the adoption organizations that there would be costs for the children, she says.
The investigation establishes that there have been irregularities. Is it your opinion that trafficking in children adopted to Sweden from China has occurred?
– Based on the information we had at the time, we assessed that the conditions for authorization, collaborations, with China and other countries were met. What has emerged subsequently is difficult to account for.
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Prime Minister: Welcomes investigation
The government investigation concludes that adoption organizations in Sweden have taken great risks by dealing with adoptions in China due to a lack of transparency in the country's procedures.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson believes that the state of knowledge is better today than when he was chairman of the Adoptionscentrum.
He welcomes the inquiry, which proposes that international adoptions be stopped, and says that the proposals will now be referred to and then prepared by the government. However, it is unclear what will become of the proposals.
Are you confident that there has been no trafficking in children from China who were adopted under your leadership of the Adoption Center?
– What I feel confident about is that today, through the adoption commission, we have obtained more information than we had before and that the rules that existed at that time were based on the knowledge that existed at that time. We should all respect that.
– Then I think everyone understands that most of the countries that Sweden has had adoption cooperation with have been countries that have had major problems. Countries that are closed, that are poor, that are dictatorships in various ways. That has to be taken into account. Therefore, one has to feel sufficiently confident that it is possible to have adoption cooperation and that is what the investigation strongly questions.
Ulf Kristersson says that all adoptions that have taken place in Sweden were done within the framework of laws, regulations and the supervision of authorities.
– It's about children who need to have families to avoid growing up in orphanages, but it's also about adoption processes that must be safe enough for a legally secure country like Sweden to be able to work with them.
Were they safe then?
– With the knowledge we had then, absolutely. But I do not rule out at all that there is knowledge today that, in the light of history, gives a different picture.