Macedonia Adoption Scam Victims Speak Out

As Macedonia probes allegations about a sinister adoption "racket", an NGO is compiling testimonies of people who suspect that their children were stolen from them, pronounced dead, and then sold.

Testimonies by some 30 families who believe their babies were falsely pronounced dead in order for them to be sold will be handed to the Ministry of Social Affairs this week, a local NGO said.

The NGO, “Building the Future”, lobbies for orphans’ rights.

“The testimonies of the families that gave us their consent will be handed over to the ministry. But we have no means to further pursue and investigate [the claims],” Ilija Jovanovic, the head of the NGO, warned.

Earlier this month, Social Affairs Minister Spiro Ristovski sacked the entire national commission in charge of adoption and ordered an investigation into the procedures.

He also urged people in possession of important information to come forward and said the results of the ministry probe would be released “by the end of this year”.

Hinting that some adoption officials also may have been involved in the shocking scam, he insisted than any misdeeds would result in the pressing of criminal charges.

Jovanovic, whose NGO has for years voiced suspicions of a possible criminal racket in the adoption service, hailed the minister for encouraging people to speak out.

“Most of these testimonies are shocking… telling of children who allegedly were dead but whose families suspect they were sold,” Jovanovic said.

Families say they were told all sorts of stories about why their children had died, but now suspect hospital medical staff, social care centres and some politicians were involved in a racket that involved changing the identity of their children and selling them.

Most of the families said previously they were afraid to speak out, which is why they did not report their suspicions to the relevant institutions before.

A source from the Labour Ministry told Balkan Insight that the probe was currently concentrating on checking adoption records for inconsistencies.

Dusko Minovski, advisor from the Social Affairs Ministry, said it was difficult to say at this stage whether any abuses had occurred.

“As in all other areas, such things are possible”, he told Radio Free Europe on Thursday. “It is possible for someone to switch the documents [of the child] during or after birth.”

As far as he knows, all adoption procedures conducted under the auspices of social care centres followed the letter of the law.

The broader context of the adoption story is a shortage of children for adoption in Macedonia.

According to official records, only about 30 children are awaiting adoption in Macedonia, which is far too few to meet demand. Some 300 couples have applied to adopt.