'Dutch adoption stop deprives South African children of the chance to have a family'

More than two months ago, the cabinet temporarily halted foreign adoptions due to abuses . In South Africa, one of the countries from which children were adopted, they do not identify with it.

The Campher family's wall is full of pictures of babies and toddlers. Over the past seven years, the couple Barbara and Thinus have cared for nearly a hundred children in their home. Three children were adopted by the Dutch. They are currently taking care of six children.

"We keep the shelter small so that it feels like a family," says Thinus Campher. "If we go on an outing, we can all go together, that is not possible if we would take care of more children. Six is ??our max."

To the Netherlands

Very soon there will be one child less. "A 6-year-old boy whom we have been taking care of for years is going to the Netherlands." For the time being he is the last of this reception family. The only reason his adoption goes ahead is that he was already in the adoption process when intercountry adoption was suspended.

Correspondent Elles van Gelder paid a visit to the shelter of the Campher family:

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'We had the pleasure of taking care of 97 children'

Adoption was halted after the report of the Joustra Commission which talks about abuses such as child trafficking, custody, corruption and falsification of documents. The committee investigated the adoption of children from, in particular, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka during the period 1967 to 1997, but also encountered structural problems that have still not been resolved.

According to the Dutch Ministry of Justice, a total of 94 children came to the Netherlands from South Africa between 2015 and 2019. The country was not specifically investigated by the commission.

'No complaints'

Tebogo Mabe, director of adoption at the South African Ministry of Social Affairs, says he is not aware of abuses in his country. “We haven't had any cases or complaints here,” he says. "But we want to give the Netherlands the space to investigate this because it is in the interest of the children."

All this is done with the utmost care in South Africa, says Debbie Wybrow, who as a lawyer was legally involved in 35 adoptions to the Netherlands. She retrieves an adoption file from her home office closet. It is 260 pages thick. "I'm not saying that nothing ever goes wrong, but I'm not aware of it. The procedures in South Africa are among the strictest in the world."

Lawyer Debbie Wybrow NOS / ELLES VAN GELDER

Unlike the South African government, she advocates allowing adoptions from her country as soon as possible, in the best interest of the child. "I don't understand how the shutdown is a good thing. Investigate abuses and better monitor new adoptions. But a global shutdown destroys children's rights and family life."

last option

According to the Joustra Committee, abuses could arise and continue, among other things, because adoption has for too long been seen as saving children in need. But for the children who go to Dutch adoptive parents from South Africa, it is really the last and only option, says Wybrow. "It's about children we really couldn't find a place for here."

Many of the children who go abroad are either older or have had health problems or emotional damage. “We always look for a local solution first, but South Africans prefer to have a healthy child under one year old,” says Renata Malan, who works with Wybrow as a social worker.

Shudder

“If there is some form of trauma, such as a mother who was addicted or abused, or if it concerns a child who has been abandoned and thus nothing is known about, South Africans are often reluctant to adopt. want to know what the pregnancy was like. "

An hour's drive from the small-scale shelter at the Campher family is Goeie Hoop, a child and youth shelter. It is run by a Dutch couple. Ida Born prefers not to use the word children's home anymore, because of its negative connotation.

Maximum capacity

Dozens of children between the ages of two and eighteen run across the large lawn playing football and korfball. "We currently have 48 children and are at our maximum capacity," says Ida Born. "There is a waiting list."

At first Born and her husband thought of adopting from South Africa to the Netherlands. But precisely with the idea that children are better off in their own country, they changed their plans and settled in South Africa. "Yet I now see that there are really children who are left out. It would be nice if the option for foreign adoption continues. Every child has the right to parents and family."

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