Distance mothers say confidence in forced adoption research: 'don't recognize myself in it'

Publication date: 10 May 2021

The investigation into forced adoption between 1956 and 1984 has ended in painful embarrassment. The advocate of the Dutch Distance Mother Foundation has stated its confidence in the investigation led by the outgoing Minister for Legal Protection Sander Dekker.

Dekker admitted last summer that mistakes had been made in the investigation and apologized for this. Stories of children and parents who have had to deal with forced adoption turned out not to be safe at the 'registration point' that was set up for them. A committee was set up to see what went wrong, but now that the mothers have not heard anything for months, the measure is full for them. The DNA Foundation is even pushing for a parliamentary inquiry to expose the errors.

Researchers estimate that it concerns about 15,000 Dutch children who were handed over to an adoptive family during this period. This often happened under great pressure, for example because their mothers were not married or were still minors. Committing an abortion was not an option at the time.

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'I am humiliated'

Distance mother Aeltsje Sierksma (73 years old) is one of the participants in the study who feels left out in the cold. In 1967 she became pregnant with a Moroccan boy at the age of 20. A bureau for single, unmarried mothers told Aeltsje at the time that she should give up the baby, but she doesn't want that. So the pressure is increased. "My parents were not happy with it. They also did not have time for a baby," she tells Hart van Nederland . "The game my parents played was that I would go to an aunt in Rhenen. My child was taken there then." Aeltsje's friend has already moved on with his life.

Aeltsje remembers this period as "a terrible time." "I have also been humiliated on certain points," she says. It is therefore not easy for her to tell her story by telephone against an unknown researcher from the 'application point'. But she's talking about it. She hopes that the research, conducted by the Verwey-Jonker Institute, will finally provide answers to the role of the Dutch state in adoption and whether there was pressure or coercion.

Not taken seriously

When Aeltsje wants to see the report of her interview later, she is told that this is not possible. After much insistence, she still gets hold of the document. Much to her chagrin, it contains crucial errors. "It says I have no complaints about the procedure that took years to give up my child," she says. "It also comes across as much too businesslike. I don't see myself in it."

Will van Sebille of the DNA Foundation hears these kinds of complaints from several mothers who participated in the investigation. "Participants feel that they are not being taken seriously. They have been walking around with a secret for 50 years and are talking about it for the first time. A report is then drawn up that contains errors," she says. Earlier it appeared that the data of the mothers were not safe at the reporting center that has been set up for the mothers and children. In addition, the mothers are tired of waiting. According to Sebille, the investigation has been on hold for months.