The Camilla case: Norway paid travel and telephone bills after illegal adoption

WAS STOLEN: Camilla Austbø was stolen from her family in Ecuador and adopted to Norway. Photo: Espen Rasmussen / VG

The Norwegian authorities would not say that Camilla’s adoption was illegal. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Children and Families paid for trips to Ecuador, psychological help and telephone bills for Camilla and her adoptive family.

VG told Saturday the story of Camilla Austbø (37) from Skien.

She was abducted from her home in Ecuador at the age of three. Then she was bought, sold and adopted to Norway.

The biological mother in Ecuador demanded that the adoption be annulled – so that she could get her daughter back.

Then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the organization Adoptionsforum transferred summer of money to Ecuador – and the demand to get the girl back disappeared.

Now VG can say that the Ministry of Children and Families has also paid several amounts to the Austbø family following the illegal adoption.

REUNITED: Camilla was reunited with her biological mum, Cecilia, 11 years after she was abducted. Here they are with their adoptive parents Kjell, and Liss and Camilla’s brother Juan Pedro. Photo: Private / PRIVATE

It wasn’t until Camilla Austbø was a teenager that she got to meet her biological mother again. The reunion took place in Norway in the summer of 2000 and representatives from the Norwegian authorities were present.

14-year-old Camilla then entered into a crisis. She mourned the loss of her biological family – and wanted to get to know them better. “How are we going to keep in touch?”, she wrote in a letter to her biological mother, Cecilia in Ecuador.

– It was a terrible time. We understood that Camilla wanted to meet her family in Ecuador again. She didn’t want to lose them again, says adoptive mother Liss Austbø to VG.

DIFFICULT: When Camilla learned the truth about the adoption, she was 14 and went through a personal crisis. Adoptive parents Kjell and Liss tried to help her as best they could. Photo: Espen Rasmussen / VG

But when she and her husband contacted the Ministry of Children and Families, they first encountered closed doors.

They were told that the adoption of Camilla had been completed, and that the ministry would not intervene in individual cases. This is revealed in the log that the adoptive parents kept for several years to keep track of the formal treatment of Camilla’s case.

– But for us the matter was not over. Camilla was in crisis. She had learned that her biological mother had never adopted her away. On the contrary, she had mourned the loss of Camilla for years, says adoptive father Kjell.

In a letter from the Ministry of Children and Families to the adoptive parents from spring 2000, it is stated that the adoption of Camilla is both legal and valid – and that “the legal ties to Camilla’s biological family in Ecuador have been broken”.

This is shown in a document from 2000 that VG has set.

– We ended up in a terribly difficult position. We couldn’t afford to travel to Ecuador so often that Camilla could keep in touch with her own family, says Kjell Austbø.

GRIEF: Camilla took care of her biological mother Cecilia travels back to Ecuador after the reunion. Photo: Espen Rasmussen / VG

Only when the adoptive parents got legal help did they experience that the ministry took responsibility. In a letter to the Ministry of Children and Families from October 2000, the family’s lawyer wrote:

“It is important to be clear that we are dealing with a child who can grow up with his biological mother. We must also be clear to ourselves that we are facing adoptive parents who have become parents to a child without it being the biological mother’s wish that the child should grow up with strangers.”

Then the ministry turned around.

In the spring of 2001, the Ministry of Children and Families decided to pay ticket expenses for up to four trips to Ecuador for the entire Austbø family. They were also covered up to NOK 25,000 in residence fees for the trip, according to a document VG has provided.

The ministry also paid for other expenses for the Austbø family, documents VG has set show: Half of a high telephone bill, because Camilla had called her biological family in Ecuador a lot, psychological help for the Austbø family and legal help for the adoptive parents.

CRIMINAL: On Saturday, Minister for Children and Families Kjersti Toppe said in an interview with VG that what happened to Camilla is human trafficking. Photo: Espen Rasmussen / VG

Minister for Children and Families, Kjersti Toppe, writes in an email that she can understand that the ministry helped Camilla and the family, as the situation was at the time.

When asked by VG about why the ministry covered the expenses for the Austbø family, Toppe writes:

– I do not know the assessments that were the basis of the gang. It’s been 20 years, and I don’t have enough grounds to comment on the background.

Topp writes further:

– This case must have been very difficult for everyone involved.

– Does the Ministry of Children and Families have a responsibility in this case?

– The ministry has overall responsibility for ensuring that the adoption system is as good as possible. Bufdir will now begin a review of the system for foreign adoptions. Then I will ensure that the directorate looks at the handling by the Norwegian governing authorities when it comes to the adoptions from Ecuador.

Did not make all the journeys

Camilla was paid for four trips to visit her biological mother in Ecuador. But she only managed to travel three times at the ministry’s expense, she says.

When she turned 18, the ministry’s offer to cover the journey no longer applied.

– The impressions were so strong every time I was in Ecuador that I had to spend time in Norway between each trip. That I didn’t make it to all the trips was a bit sad, she says today.

– Even though I had turned 18, I was still a student and did not have the opportunity to pay for my trips myself.

Published:

Published: 17.01.23 at 20:02

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