This professor pointed out problems with adoption a long time ago. He is still right 'forty years too late'

René Hoksbergen, professor of adoption René Hoksbergen saw early on that adopting children from abroad can cause problems.

Decades ago, René Hoksbergen pointed to problems with foreign adoption. This spring, the Committee on International Adoption Investigation concluded that abuses do indeed occur. As a result, all adoption procedures have been halted. There will also be an Expertise Center for identity questions, searches and aftercare.

Professor René Hoksbergen

Hoksbergen , professor emeritus at Utrecht University specializing in adoption, says he is "very happy" with the conclusions of the committee. "But it's forty years too late."

Hoksbergen (80) saw it go wrong. “Of course, in the beginning, around the 1970s, it was beautiful. In distant countries there was war, poverty and we Dutch could help. We bring the children here and give them a lot of love, then it will be all right, was the idea. It was called 'the pink cloud'. There were a lot of idealistic, passionate adoptive parents here, and the ministry was behind it. I also enthusiastically helped to bring children here.”

Fraud and child trafficking

It soon turned out to be a naive thought. Everything went wrong during the procedure, the committee noted. There was talk of fraud and child trafficking, but nobody wanted to see it. Hoksbergen: “Some mediators could not be trusted, which meant that birth certificates were incorrect. Once in the Netherlands it was said: oh, what does it matter.”

Also read:The report 'Nobody has looked into us'

Meanwhile, the pink cloud burst in many families. “Because a child who grows up wants to know who it is, from whom it descends,” says Hoksbergen. “That is an essential fact. That only came through later.”

It led to attachment problems, Hoksbergen says. “Don't underestimate what it means to be separated from your parents, from your country, your language, your food, your family. The bonding already starts in the mother's belly.”

In addition, some adopted children were neglected in their early years. “I have been to many orphanages. One is better than the other.” And then there is the transition to a completely different situation: “Suddenly as a child you get a lot of attention, love, enough food. You go to bed at seven, lead a regular life. That is a very big difference.”

Some children coped well, others less so. “They developed behavioral problems, some became unmanageable at home. The parents then went to the child psychologist, but they were not trained for these kinds of problems. They knew too little about it.”

Aftercare

The most difficult cases were sometimes sent to Hoksbergen. He was one of the few who had specialized in adoption as a clinical psychologist since the 1970s. He often found distraught parents.

Thirty years ago, Hoksbergen sounded the alarm at the ministry, several times. “I said: there must be aftercare for this group from the government. The knowledge is missing! And I wasn't the only one. There were more psychologists who said: this cannot go on any longer.”

But aftercare, says Hoksbergen, was not an issue for the ministry. “Officials said: 'foreign adoption is a private matter, people have to figure it out for themselves'. It was not listened to. That is the stupidity of power. I've been so angry about that. And still."

"