The government launches an inspection mission on illicit practices in international adoption in France

The Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Ms. Catherine Colonna, the Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice, Mr. Eric Dupond-Moretti and the Secretary of State to the Prime Minister for Children, Ms. Charlotte Caubel, decided to seize the General Inspectorate of Foreign Affairs (IGAE), the General Inspectorate of Justice (IGJ) and the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) on illicit practices in international adoption.

International adoption developed significantly in the 1950s to culminate in 2005 with the arrival of more than 4,000 children from abroad on our territory. Since then, the number of adoptions has dropped significantly, from 4,136 in 2005 to 421 in 2019 1 .

This drop is mainly due to changes in policies in the countries of origin of adopted children, but also to the implementation of the 1993 Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption; the creation of the French Adoption Agency in 2005 also made it possible to further improve fraud prevention.

Despite these significant results, several associations of children adopted prior to the implementation of the convention and the actions initiated by the French Adoption Agency (AFA) argued that adoptions organized in the past had been able to be irregular or even illegal. They would like the public authorities to be able, as far as possible, to document these irregularities and ensure that the structures which today contribute to the adoption of foreign children in France put in place effective systems to prevent fraud.

During the parliamentary debates around the law of February 7, 2022, the government undertook to shed light on the phenomenon of illicit adoptions, which was able to develop internationally from the 1980s.

It is in this context that the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Mrs Catherine Colonna, the Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice, Mr Eric Dupond-Moretti and the Secretary of State to the Prime Minister in charge of childhood, Ms Charlotte Caubel, have decided to contact the General Inspectorate of Foreign Affairs , the General Inspectorate of Justice and the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs in order, on the one hand, to identify the illicit practices which took place in the past to prevent them from happening again and, on the other hand, to respond to the demands of adoptees and civil society. The result of this work is expected in six months.

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