Illegal international adoptions How adoptees demand enlightenment

In the 1970s and 1980s it was relatively easy for couples with an unfulfilled desire to have children to adopt a child from abroad. Today these children are grown. When they search for their biological parents, they often find out that their adoption was illegal and documents were forged.

Isabel Fuhs wants to know who her mother is. "I keep asking myself that. But I can imagine that she's somewhere.” Isabel Fuhs was adopted from Brazil in 1985. She was not even two months old then, a little baby. But she knows almost nothing about her first weeks of life. The biological mother is said to have been only twelve years old when the child was born. A Brazilian lawyer arranged the adoption to Germany.

“The story about my adoption is really very strange. There's nothing, no records, what hospital was I born in? Nothing to say about the birth parents either, nothing about the mother, no name. This is really very dirty. You can't understand much today."

It's an agonizing blank in her biography. Psychologists have long known how important knowledge of one's biological origins is for the formation of one's identity. The Federal Constitutional Court ruled in 1989 that it is part of a person's personal rights to know their own origins. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child also contains the right to identity. Not knowing anything about their birth family plunges some adoptees into deep crises.

Right to know one's parentage

For Isabel Fuhs, too, the day came when the question of her biological mother began to hurt. “It was actually my 18th birthday, which for some reason I got it in my head that my biological mother would call me on that day. I kind of always expected that for myself.”

An expectation that was not fulfilled. Isabel Fuhs is in the same situation as many adoptees from abroad who know little or nothing about their biological origins and who also have no meaningful documents about the circumstances of the adoption. This is primarily a consequence of the very lax control of foreign adoptions up until the 1980s.

For a long time it was relatively easy in the Federal Republic - as in other western countries - for couples with an unfulfilled desire to have children to bring a baby to them from a developing country - much easier than applying for one of the few adopted children in this country. Many couples paid horrendous sums for placement, and this is how an industry with illegal practices emerged: Birth parents in the countries of origin were threatened or not properly informed about the consequences of the adoption, their children were extorted from them or bought from them.

Criminal lawyer: "International adoptions were seen relatively uncritically"

"Basically, I would say that an adoption, an international adoption, is illegal when a child who shouldn't be in the adoption system has entered the system." Elvira Loibl is an assistant professor of criminal law and criminology at Maastricht University in the United States Netherlands. The Austrian researches child trafficking and illegal foreign adoptions. These are only possible through so-called child laundering:

"So children's laundry. After the child is obtained illegally, the child is washed, which means the adoption papers, birth certificates, etc. are forged or fabricated to make the child look like a real orphan. So, you're trying to cover up the illegal origin of the child."

According to Loibl's research, placement agencies and youth welfare offices in Germany have not actively participated in such illegal practices. But they would probably have stabilized the system – by looking the other way and not asking. For a long time there was also little awareness that adopted children were not always given a favour.

Added to this was what experts refer to as the White Savior Complex: the desire of white couples to lift black children out of poverty - a phenomenon that has been critically questioned by recent colonialism debates. “At that time, people still believed that adoptions were basically a good thing, you were helping, you were saving children from poorer countries. So at that time, international adoptions were still viewed relatively uncritically.”

A debate about the role of the state flares up across Europe

The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs has rejected an interview request on the subject of international adoptions. When asked in writing whether state authorities had ignored illegal machinations in international adoptions in the past, a spokeswoman explained:

“In some European countries it has become clear that irregularities occurred in the 1970s and 1980s when children were adopted from non-European countries. As far as the adoptions are concerned, there are currently no indications that comparable irregularities have occurred on a larger scale in Germany.”

The criminologist Elvira Loibl sees it differently. As evidence, she uses, among other things, a small but meaningful study by the adoption expert Rolf Bach from 1988. It states: “Clear evidence of commercial, illegal or criminal practices was found in 70 of the 300 adoption files completed. This means that 23 percent of all adoptions of children from the Third World or 42 percent of private adoptions contradict the applicable adoption regulations in the Federal Republic and – as a rule – also in the foreign countries of origin.”

Problems with international adoptions were already known at that time. The fact that the Ministry of Family Affairs compares itself with other European countries and apparently believes that there is comparatively little to complain about here – this could also be due to the fact that there is already a heated political debate in other countries about the role of the state in international adoptions. Loibl from Maastricht University cites the Netherlands as an example:

"Here in the Netherlands there were more and more adoptees who started looking for their roots, where they come from and who realized that they weren't actually given up by their biological mother, but that they were actually kidnapped, for example .”

Successful action for damages in the Netherlands

A Dutch woman illegally adopted from Sri Lanka as a baby has successfully sued the Dutch state for damages. In addition, the Dutch government had set up a commission of inquiry that uncovered abuses in the international adoption system. In 2021, even international adoptions were temporarily stopped in the Netherlands.

"Well, I think the Netherlands is a really interesting case because there are so many adoptees who are really taking to the streets demanding redress and also acknowledgment of the harm that has been done to them."

Similar debates and studies exist in Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden. So far, things have been relatively quiet in Germany on this topic. But that could change. Adoption critic Melanie Kleintz is fighting for it. "For the simple reason that many adoptees here in Germany suffer from the fact that their adoption was not legal. I think it's part of our life that you really acknowledge it and apologize for it."

Social worker: Adopted abroad have a higher risk of suicide

Melanie Kleintz was adopted from Peru in 1980 - and she has collected a lot of evidence to show that her adoption was also illegal. Her biological mother died shortly after she was born, and the father was then apparently pressured to give up the child. A Catholic children's home is said to have been involved, money flowed, documents were doctored. "It also came out later that I'm actually a year younger, that I wasn't born in 1978 but only in 1979. And I now have four birth certificates, all of which are false.”

When she became a mother herself, all the pain broke out, she says. That's when she started looking for her birth family in Peru. She found her father in the small village where he still lives. She no longer has any contact with her adoptive parents. Since then, Melanie Kleintz has made it her mission to promote the interests of foreign adoptees in Germany. The social worker is involved with InterCountry Adoptee Voices, an international organization for foreign adoptees. She advises people who are looking for their origins on the other side of the world and are stuck when documents are missing or forged.

She receives hundreds of inquiries every year. Many people who contacted her suffered from depression. There is evidence that foreign adoptees have a higher risk of suicide. However, there are no reliable statistics or studies on this. Melanie Kleintz calls for an independent investigative commission to clarify how many illegal adoptions there were in Germany - and who could have prevented it. She would also like a public apology. She also advocates more state support if adoptees want to search for their roots. "We adoptees need this explainable, how did it all go?"

Adoption laws have been tightened

A state commission of inquiry – and a public apology? None of this is planned at the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, there are “currently no considerations,” explains a spokeswoman. Disappointing for Melanie Kleintz: "We didn't have a lobby. We still don't have a lobby now. On the contrary. Actually, the Ministry for Family Affairs only supports the wishes of the adoptive parents.”

However, she admits that adoption laws have been significantly tightened. The most important is probably the Hague Adoption Convention, which Germany ratified in 2002 and which provides for strict rules for international adoptions, such as counseling and consent of the birth parents and an aptitude test for the adoption applicants. The Adoption Assistance Act, which has been in force in Germany since 2021, provides for further protection standards.

Privately organized international adoptions have since been banned; Anyone who wants to adopt a child from abroad must always turn to the adoption offices of the state youth welfare offices or one of the state-recognized independent providers. These include the association “Help a child” from Rhineland-Palatinate, founded by Bea Garnier-Merz in 2004: “To date we have placed around 800 children from Haiti, Burkina Faso, Mali, Kenya and the Dominican Republic. "

She and her husband have adopted a son and a daughter from Haiti in addition to their three biological children. Because a lot of things didn't go well with the first adoption, she came up with the idea of ??setting up her own agency. She does it on a voluntary basis, by profession she is in the social service of the Bundeswehr. But of course her association also employs specialists who accompany the adoptions, prepare applicants and arrange trips. A placement costs almost 10,000 euros, plus travel expenses and various fees in the country of origin and also in Germany.

Stricter documentation makes for overcrowded homes

The new laws have made mediation much more difficult and lengthy, says Bea Garnier-Merz. “In the past it was a matter of two years at most, at most! And today you can already calculate three to five years. It's gotten more difficult. Haiti, for example, always says that we would like to go back to the way things were before. The homes are packed.” Garnier-Merz reports on the poor conditions there, on mothers who have many children and cannot feed them. Applicants are not alone in finding the fact that adoption placement takes so long today to be a burden. This is also a disadvantage for the children.

“After a certain age, adoption is no longer an issue. There is no one around the corner who says I would like to adopt a child of eight or ten years old. We experience that in Haiti when we are in children's homes and there are older children who have been there for a very long time, they come and say: Isn't there a mother for me?"

Garnier-Merz also knows the stories from the 1980s about the criminal business involving babies from all over the world. She herself has had different experiences, telling of desperate mothers in Haiti who wished their children a better life elsewhere, free from hunger and poverty. Every adoption is meticulously documented, her association submits annual reports and is in contact with the state youth welfare office. Adoption critic Melanie Kleintz also sees the fact that international adoptions can generally be successful and, under certain conditions, are a stroke of luck for the children:

“There are children who are not wanted all over the world and they need a safe place and there are adoptive families who can provide that. As such, I cannot say that I am against adoption and that adoption should be banned in general.”

Adoptions are declining sharply overall

However, both domestic and foreign adoptions in the Federal Republic are declining sharply. This is probably mainly due to the successes of reproductive medicine: More and more couples with an unfulfilled desire to have children can be helped with artificial insemination. Adoptions abroad are becoming increasingly rare: in 2021 there were only 111 compared to almost 1,000 in 1992. “I also regret that many children no longer have a chance,” says Bea Garnier-Merz.

If a child is placed in an adoptive family, the files must be kept in Germany for 100 years. And at the age of 16, the adoptees have the right to inspect the files. “We now have adult adopted children. A lot of people get in touch at some point and ask, can I look at my documents?”

Her association then accompanies the adoptees in this research, provides them with trauma experts and gives them the opportunity to talk. Bea Garnier-Merz also offers so-called root journeys to get to know the biological family in the country of origin. Sometimes the adoptees are then disappointed – but it is still an important experience. "Everyone has the right to know where they come from. And that you want to see your parents, if they are still alive. I think that is absolutely important for your own identity.”

Everyday racism because of dark skin and dark hair

An accompanied and organized root journey to the birth family – Isabel Fuhs, who was adopted from Brazil as a baby, can only dream of that. She, too, had started looking for her mother. She commissioned a Brazilian woman to visit local hospitals and children's homes, taking up every possible lead - in the hope of finding any clue to her mother.

"For me, there was always the thought that there is something for me in Brazil, there is a part of the family, a part of me. And in order to give this story a reality, it was also very important for me to look for it." She was always supported by her adoptive parents. The relationship with them is cordial and intact. “I always have a hard time using the word 'adoptive parents' because it doesn't exist for me. These are my parents. And it has always been like that.”

Nevertheless, she struggled with her identity for a long time. In addition, there were experiences with everyday racism, with xenophobia, the constant questioning where she came from with her dark skin and dark hair. "I'm always different somehow. That means for me: I don't belong here, I don't belong there. And who am I anyway?”

Could her birth mother give her an answer? She does not know. Because the search was unsuccessful. When Isabel Fuhs was signaled from a Brazilian children's home that she shouldn't dig any further, she stopped. Maybe also to protect yourself from disturbing information. "I think a lot of things went wrong there, possibly some illegal things as well. But also questions that I don’t even want to ask myself because I don’t want to hear the answers.”

That doesn't mean that she's finished with the topic - but other things are more important at the moment, her own family - she is the mother of a son. "I have my relatives, a person who looks like me, a biological relative, I created him. So I went forward and not backwards. And that actually helped a lot to say, at this point it doesn't go any further. But that's not a final decision forever."

Because maybe one day she will start looking again, travel to Brazil and search for her biological family there.

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