Rep. Kim Seong-joo "Child exports disguised as orphans... We need to find out the truth about overseas adoptions"

3 October 2022

Rep. Kim Seong-joo "Child exports disguised as orphans... We need to find out the truth about overseas adoptions"

During the authoritarian government, 41.7% of overseas adoptees whose birth parents were unknown… 1.4 times higher than domestic adoption

Reporter Dae-Hong Kim (=Jeonbuk) | Article input 2022.10.03. 08:17:43

? Kim Seong-ju, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea. ?

Controversy has arisen over claims that serious human rights violations have been committed over overseas adoptions under the neglect of the authoritarian government in the past.?

Recently, a Danish Korean adoptee group submitted an investigation request to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (Truth and Reconciliation Committee) to determine whether the human rights of children adopted in the 1970s and 1990s were violated.?

In particular, political circles point out that a thorough investigation into the facts regarding past adoptions abroad is necessary.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare by National Assemblyman Kim Seong-ju (Democratic Party, Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do), a total of 66,511 people were adopted abroad during the 10 years from 1980 to 1989.?

At that time, 9 out of 1,000 births were adopted overseas, Kim explained.

Overseas adoption in Korea started with 254 children in 1962 and has developed into a large export industry under the authoritarian government.?

The sharp increase in overseas adoptions is because adoptions were handled by the 'private' rather than the government at that time.?

In the name of economic self-sufficiency, the Park Chung-hee government resolved the protection of children in need of protection by sending them for overseas adoption, and this was established as a system.?

Private adoption agencies received huge adoption fees per adoption from overseas adoptive parents.?

As of 1988, the fee for overseas adoption was $5,000 per case, which was more than the $4571 per capita GDP at the time.?

As of 1988, the income earned by adoption agencies was $32,315,000 a year, equivalent to about 2.2 billion won when converted at the exchange rate at the time.

As overseas adoption is directly related to the economic profit of institutions, it is estimated that problems such as paying money to hospitals and midwives for many adoptions to find children to be adopted abroad, adopting missing children, filling out poor documents, and creating orphan family registers, Kim said. explained.?

In particular, there are claims that it is customary to make a family register as an orphan and send it for adoption, even if it is a child who is not an orphan, taking advantage of the ease of issuing a visa.

In fact, in the case of overseas adoptees, it was found that there were 1.4 times more cases of inability to know the information of the birth parents than domestic adoptees due to insufficient documents and family registers of orphans.?

According to data submitted by Rep. Kim Seong-ju from the Children's Rights Agency, only 29.5% of domestic adoptees could not confirm the location of their birth parents due to inaccurate adoption records and no information on their birth parents (orphans), while the proportion of overseas adoptees was 41.7%. appeared to reach

Rep. Kim Seong-ju emphasized, "The government should investigate whether there were any human rights violations related to overseas adoptions in the past."?

This is because overseas adoption work is not only carried out by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, but also in multiple ministries such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (visa issuance and diplomacy), the Ministry of Justice (nationality and immigration), and the Ministry of Public Administration and Security (family registration and missing children).

In particular, Rep. Kim suggested, "The Ministry of Public Administration and Security needs to consider transferring data related to overseas adoptions to the National Archives by amending the Enforcement Decree of the Public Records Management Act."?

As overseas adoption agencies still rely on donations and adoption fees to operate their institutions, if unethical aspects are discovered, difficulties such as suspension of sponsorship may occur, which is why there is concern among overseas adopters that they may damage the data.?

An adoptee group that recently applied for a truth-finding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission also delivered a letter to the Yongsan Presidential Office asking to 'stop damage to adoption documents'.

Rep. Kim Seong-ju said, "For adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents, this is not a systemic problem in the past, but a serious human rights violation that continues today. .

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