The Kerala High Court has ruled that adoption by step-parent cannot be permitted unless the biological parent of the child gives consent for adoption. The Court further clarified that CARA (Central Adoption Resource Agency) cannot relax the requirement of obtaining biological parent's consent for adoption under the Adoption Regulations due to the legal implications of an adoption.Justice...

With the entry into force of the revised European Directive on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings ((EU) 2024/1712), illegal adoption has been identified as a new form of human trafficking. The directive does not explain under which circumstances illegal adoption falls under exploitation. In view of the future amendment of the law in the Netherlands, a graduation research was conducted at the EMM on abuses in the intercountry adoption chain and the impact of these abuses on victims.

Interviews with victims

In the graduation research, fifteen victims of abuses in the adoption chain were interviewed. Their adoptions took place between 1975 and 2001. The now adult adopted respondents came across illegal and unethical practices during their search for their adoption history. In the interviews, they tell what they discovered about the events preceding their adoption procedure and the course of the procedure.

Types of abuse

NEW DELHI: The government has set off the process to verify and include in the foster care and adoption pool of the Central Adoption Resources Authority children above six years living in child care institutions (CCIs) who have not been visited by anyone from their family for a stipulated period of time or whose guardians have been found to be unfit to take care of them due to any mental or terminal illness.
States are verifying and processing all these cases for inclusion in the pool. Speaking at the closing session of the national consultation organised under the aegis of the Supreme Court’s Juvenile Justice Committee and Unicef on the protection of the rights of children with disabilities, women and child development secretary Anil Malik shared that to include the identified children in the adoption pool two new categories are being added pertaining to cases involving “unfit guardians” and “no visitations”. These new categories have been added in addition to the existing categories of orphaned, abandoned, and surrendered (OAS) children in the adoption pool of the Central Adoption Resources Authority.
 

Nearly 15,000 children, across these categories, who can be moved to the adoption pool from CCIs have been identified across institutions in the country.
The Supreme Court had in Nov 2023 directed the government to identify and register all such children languishing in CCIs and those not reaching the care institutions without any delay.

The WCD secretary reiterated that the step to include these older children in CCIs in the adoption pool was in line with the view of integrating as many children with the mainstream by trying to see that they grow up in a family and have a social upbringing and not be left to grow in the confines of a children home.
“As far as children registered under the category of ‘no visitation’ and ‘unfit guardians’ are concerned, they will primarily be potential cases for foster care. Once such children are declared legally free, their permanent rehabilitation can be facilitated through adoption,” CARA had stated in its memorandum issued earlier this year to all state adoption resource authorities, district child protection units, specialised adoption agencies and child care institutions.

While emphasising the growing focus on foster care, Malik also emphasised that to step-up adoptions of children with disabilities the process has been streamlined which has given an impetus to the adoptions in this category not just by foreigners and NRIs but also prospective parents from within the country. Malik said they were noticing a positive change in attitudes. The WCD secretary shared that in 2022-23, 152 children with disabilities were adopted. This rose to 309 last year and so far this year, around 150 children have already found a family.

Now that Spoorloos is ending, the government must make money available for adoptees who are looking for relatives. That is what experts and people involved say. Former editors of the TV program will be questioned in court on Thursday.

Shortly after the adopted Iris Kolthof had heard from a Spoorloos editor that she would be reunited with biological family members, it turned out that the TV program would be taken off the air immediately. That decision followed more than a week after the news, in the Volkskrant of February 12, that the editors had linked Marthainès de Vries to the wrong relatives in Colombia .

After a great deal of commotion about De Vries' heartbreaking story, KRO-NCRV decided to stop showing Spoorloos and to throw out the recordings for the coming season. To prevent De Vries and other victims of a mismatch - officially there are eight - from being confronted with the program again.

Kolthof (32) was informed five minutes before the press release. 'I was shocked. I was supposed to travel to Brazil with a team from Spoorloos in mid-March . I knew they had a DNA match. I would hear the rest there.' To her relief, it turned out that the trip would go ahead as planned, because it had already been set in motion. 'But the reunion will not be filmed or broadcast.'

Top guidance

David Van Turnhout

Woensdag 6 maart 2025

om 03:00

Vanaf de jaren 50 tot begin de jaren 80 zetten katholieke adoptiebureaus ongehuwde moeders onder druk om hun pasgeboren kind af te staan. In drie afleveringen neemt onderzoeksjournalist David Van Turnhout die activiteiten onder de loep.

Vandaag deel 1: de naam Adoptiewerk Thérèse Wante keert in adoptiedossiers steeds terug, wat was haar rol?

0 Catholic adoption agencies pressured unmarried mothers to give up their newborn child. In three episodes, investigative journalist David Van Turnhout examines these practices, but he also looks at the consequences and the current situation. Today he speaks with Benoît Vermeerbergen of Binnenlands Geadoptteerd.

From 1945 to 1980, Catholic adoption agencies such as Thérèse Wante organised thousands of forced adoptions. Unmarried pregnant girls were usually put in touch with centres through clergy or Christian organisations where they had to hide during their pregnancy, because becoming pregnant without being married was a mortal sin. Those who had enough money to spare could give birth anonymously in France, after which the child was smuggled back across the border and placed with a Catholic adoptive family. In this way, they wanted to prevent the pregnancy from ever coming out and society from speaking shame about the girl's family. Those who were less well-off were often sent to Belgian centres, such as De kleine vos in Borgerhout or Tamar in Lommel. The birth was discreet, but not anonymous, as the mother's name was then mentioned on the birth certificate. In France, the mother's name was not mentioned on the birth certificate.

A total of 30 to 40,000 girls and young women are estimated to have given birth in domestic and French centres and hospitals. The number of adopted children still alive today may therefore be in the tens of thousands. Almost all adopted children have questions about their origins and identity. Their search prompted them to unite. In the meantime, there are Facebook groups in which thousands of members try to help each other find their biological mothers. Their cry for attention led to the first recognition in 2015. Both the Belgian state and the Church apologized for the practices they had organised and made possible for decades.

Mother known for 2.5 hoursApologies do not answer the many questions. To help adoptees and birth mothers, Benoît Vermeerbergen De Coninck and Debby Mattys founded the website and support group Binnenlands Geadopteerd around the same time. “With our platform, we primarily offer a listening ear, but we also stand up for the rights of domestic adoptees. We also include people who were brought to Belgium via an anonymous birth in France,” says Vermeerbergen De Coninck. “There were already a few initiatives for adoptees from far abroad, but not for our group.”Vermeerbergen himself was born via an anonymous birth in France and ended up with an Antwerp adoptive family. Although he grew up in a warm nest, the search for his identity and his birth mother dominated his adult life. It was only a few years ago that he met his birth mother for the first time, who was terminally ill. It was just one meeting. “Her husband didn’t allow any further contact. I didn’t know my birth mother for more than two and a half hours.”Benoit Vermeerbergen De Coninck.Benoit Vermeerbergen De Coninck. © Patrick De Roo

Soon-Yi Previn was 21 years old when she first shared a kiss with filmmaker Woody Allen, who was then 56 and the long-time boyfriend of Soon-Yi's adoptive mother, Mia Farrow.

When Soon-Yi Previn recounts how she met her husband, she tells the story like any happy wife might. They came together for a movie one night. A passionate discussion turned into a passionate kiss. Soon-Yi was a “goner” and quickly fell in love. But her relationship with her husband, the director Woody Allen and the ex-boyfriend of her adoptive mother, Mia Farrow, would be anything but simple.

Soon after Farrow found out about the relationship — infamously by finding nude photos of Soon-Yi at Allen’s place — their family was torn apart. Soon-Yi claims that Farrow threw her out of their apartment and told a friend that Allen was “satanic.” Worst of all, allegations that Allen had sexually abused the young daughter he had adopted with Farrow came to light.

In the years since, Allen’s oeuvre of films has been put under scrutiny. He’s been “canceled.” Documentaries have come out examining the allegations against him, and his daughter Dylan has unfalteringly maintained that he inappropriately touched her when she was just seven years old.

In all this, Soon-Yi’s story is often skimmed over. In some tellings, she’s a victim. In others, she’s akin to a homewrecker. So, who is she?

According to childhood researcher Sarah Alminde, adopted children can benefit from spending time with their biological family, but they must be able to decide for themselves.

- Poor adoptive parents... what a nightmare to go through.

- I would have done the same thing, fought tooth and nail.

- Where is the child's best interests?

In Cambodia, there are many threats to family stability, and when parents or grandparents fall into hardship, they are forced to make difficult decisions about how to ensure their child or grandchild’s basic needs are met. In desperation, many parents will take the last resort — relinquishing their child to orphanage care. But through research and community collaboration funded by Save the Children, USAID and GHR Foundation grants, Holt hopes to create a model of services that keeps children out of institutions and with their families.

Sinat’s home in Krasaing Mean Chey Village near Kampot, Cambodia. Sinat, dressed in green, waves as Holt staff leave. Sinat’s grandson is standing in the front of the frame, wearing the Holt schoolbag his child sponsor in America helped purchase for him.

Last January, I was sitting under a tin-covered porch on a rough, wooden platform. Red-faced and sweating, I was not cut out for the heavy, exhausting heat of the Cambodian summer.

The shade of Sinat’s porch was welcome relief. Sinat’s house is a single-room structure, with green tin walls. Unlike many of the homes in rural Cambodia, her home is not built on stilts, which typically protects homes from flooding. For that reason, Sinat and her 15-year-old grandson sometimes sleep in their rice storage room, an additional structure behind the main house, elevated about four feet off the ground on thick, wooden stilts.

When Holt travels to visit with families, our presence, especially in rural areas, usually draws a crowd. Kids come to see what we are doing in their village. Even adults show up, curious about the foreigners.

Reconnecting Haitian families separated by adoption is the mission of Voie D'Espoir.   At the initiative of Michel Joseph, several hundred parents took part in a census day organized on Radio Télévision Caraibes on Saturday, March 7, 2021. 

After more than twenty reports that have helped reunite families, Michel Joseph wants to continue to produce hope by launching his organization called “Voie d'espoir”. 

Indeed, between emotion and testimony, the presenter of 19-20 takes pleasure in being an artist of these meetings which provide a lot of happiness. 

 More than 700 families are registered in the organization's database, with the hope of finding their offspring, who have been given up for adoption. 

Around fifty volunteers were available for this big first.