What do you do when an NGO has a monopoly on a central service and does not deliver?

When Minister of Social Affairs and Housing Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil (S) announced on Tuesday an indefinite halt to international adoption to Denmark, it gave rise to a number of questions.

Many of them cannot be answered here and now, but one of the most interesting starts from the fact that adoption is a rare, if not unique, phenomenon: a central service that has until now been 100 percent NGO-driven.

It is an area that civil society has had a monopoly on. And the interesting question is about much more than adoption.

You can put any service into the equation and ask: What do you do when the only provider of a service is a civil society organization that is no longer able or deprived of the right to provide it?

SEOUL: Born as Yoon-hwa in South Korea in 1974, she became Petra Zwart of the Netherlands at the age of one.

Her adoptive Dutch family provided a warm and welcoming home to both Zwart and her biological brother, who was adopted at the age of five.

Even so, Zwart recalls finding it difficult to fit in as a child, due to her East Asian appearance being different, “like an ugly duckling”.

She and her brother are among the nearly 170,000 babies that South Korea has sent overseas for adoption since 1953.

Minister of Social Affairs and Housing Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil (S) expresses great understanding for the difficult situation in which the 36 families who are currently waiting to adopt are in

Earlier in the day, Denmark's only mediator of international adoptions, Danish International Adoption (DIA), announced that they are stopping their work.

It was decided at an extraordinary board meeting in DIA and takes place after the organization has been hit by a number of sanctions from both the Danish Appeals Agency and the Ministry of Social Affairs, Housing and the Elderly, which is responsible for supervising the adoption agency.

And the latter ministry makes no secret of the fact that this is a serious situation in a press release on Tuesday afternoon.

'It is the most serious crisis in the area of ​​adoption in the past ten years,' they write.

Norway announced an inquiry into its foreign adoptions. Anti-adoption activists are pleased but have yet to be convinced. "There must be a sufficient level of competence in the committee."

That the government turned around is the only reasonable thing, says adoption activist Priyangika Samanthie to the Norwegian Christian daily Vårt Land. "But we must ensure the level of competence of those who will be part of the review commission. We need experts in human trafficking with a strong legal background. What's more, what this has done to adoptees must be assessed – we can look at this not only legally, but also psychologically."

Samanthie runs the organisation “Romantisert innvandring” (Romanticised immigration), which works to uncover human rights violations in the adoption field. It took years before calls from Samanthie and other people critical towards foreign abortion were heard. "Adoption should be in the child's best interests, but then we are ignored until the authorities are pressured to take a position on it."

Kjersti Toppe, the Norwegian Minister for Children and Families, agrees with Samanthie that it has taken too long for an investigation to take place. "It shouldn't be like that, and we must work on this. For too many years, the prevailing thought has been that international adoption is "a happy thing". We must recognise that we must take the field more seriously."

Violations

Denmark’s only overseas adoption agency says it is “winding down” its facilitation of international adoptions after a government agency raised concerns over fabricated documents and procedures that obscured children’s origins abroad

Denmark’s only overseas adoption agency said Tuesday that it is “winding down” its facilitation of international adoptions after a government agency raised concerns over fabricated documents and procedures that obscured children's biological origins abroad.

The privately run Danish International Adoption mediated adoptions in the Philippines, India, South Africa, Thailand, Taiwan and the Czech Republic. Last month, an appeals board suspended DIA's work in South Africa because of questions about the agency's adherence to legal standards.

The Danish agency announced it was getting out of the international adoption business on the same day Norway’s top regulatory body recommended stopping all overseas adoptions for two years pending an investigation into several allegedly illegal cases.

37 Danish families were on a waiting list when the mediator of international adoptions, DIA, put an end to all adoptions from abroad.

The couple Sanne and Morten Kjær Tornøe from Randers have been approved for adoption since January last year. They got on the waiting list to receive a child from Taiwan in August.

It was not many days ago that they were last in contact with the organization Danish International Adoption (DIA), which is the only organization in Denmark that mediates international adoptions.

At that time, the couple was assured that there was no danger that the DIA would stop their adoptions to Denmark.

Taiwan affected by international adoptions decision

Staff writer, with CNA

International adoptions from Taiwan are conducted according to the Hague Adoption Convention and no reports of illegal cases have been received, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday after Norway and Denmark on Tuesday suspended international adoption from several countries, including Taiwan, pending an investigation into alleged illegal operations.

Social and Family Affairs Administration Director Chien Hui-chuan (簡慧娟) said that 215 children were adopted in Taiwan in 2022, with 110 of them international adoptions, including 62 to the US, 15 to Sweden, 10 to the Netherlands, and one each to Norway and Denmark.

Denmark's only adoption agency, Danish international Adoption, is now turning the key. Document inspection reveals double work and double pay for an employee in South Africa

Danish International Adoption, also called DIA, is from today the past as Denmark's only adoption agency. In a press release, the adoption agency writes that at an extraordinary board meeting they have decided to close and switch off.  

"It is a difficult decision for the DIA board to make. But we see no other way out. The area of ​​international adoption can no longer, under the current conditions in Denmark, be run by an NGO like ours", the press release states, among other things. 

The decision has come after the Danish Appeals Board informed DIA on Friday that they would recommend to the Minister of Social Affairs to stop the mediation from DIA's largest mediation country, South Africa. Two days later, the Appeals Board then announced that they would also suspend all adoptions from five other countries for a period. 

The Danish Appeals Board has for some time been concerned about South Africa in particular. Danwatch has obtained access to the correspondence between the Danish Appeals Agency and DIA, which shows that for more than a year the agency has been asking critical questions about a problematic employment relationship and opaque bookkeeping in the country.

In 2022, an employee alerted the adoption agency DIA that they were mediating adoptions from Madagascar on a misleading basis. Still, DIA continued with the adoptions.

When Denmark's only adoption agency, Danish International Adoption (DIA), received an official warning from the Danish Appeals Board in November this year, the message was clear: 

DIA's adoption mediation in the African island nation of Madagascar was in violation of conventions and the adoption law. 

The backdrop for the warning was, among other things, illegal money transfers and an unnecessary delay in the adoption cases of two children. But Danwatch can now reveal that DIA has brokered adoptions to Denmark, even though they knew that the children's papers could contain incorrect information about their biological parentage. 

Danwatch has gained access to a number of children's cases from recent years that contain conflicting stories about the children's past, while there are also two cases where there is doubt as to who consented to the adoption. 

The adoption agency DIA, which is appointed by the Danish state, has paid support to their representative in Madagascar in violation of the rules, despite raised fingers. Risk of child trafficking, law professor assesses.

For six months, the Danish Appeals Board asked the adoption agency Danish International Adoption (DIA) to tighten up and adjust according to the rules. 

Yet the DIA chose to ignore the pointed fingers and stick to an illegal practice in the African island nation of Madagascar.

This is shown by over 400 pages of correspondence between the Danish Appeals Agency and DIA, which Danwatch has gained insight into.

Specifically, it is about the adoption agency's so-called adoption assistance for a number of orphanages in the poor island state. According to the rules, this kind of financial support must be paid to the Malagasy authorities, but DIA has chosen to give the money to their representative on the island instead, who has bought food and other necessities for the orphanages