FLASH Foundation

During the peak of international adoptions from Sri Lanka in the 1980s, Sunil Wijewardena, alongside his brother Gamini Wijewardena, operated a family-owned travel and tour agency called Asian Travels. While functioning superficially as a tour operator for foreign families visiting the island, the business served as a front for matching Western parents with Sri Lankan infants. [1, 2, 3]

Links to the FLASH Foundation and Adoption Rackets

• Systemic Fraud: Investigative tracking and media exposures revealed that Wijewardena acted as a key "fixer" or local coordinator in Sri Lanka for the Dutch FLASH Foundation. [1, 2]
• Exploitation and Coercion: The operations he facilitated were tied to the broader Sri Lankan "baby farm" scandals of the 1980s. In these schemes, vulnerable biological mothers were often lied to, coerced, or financially exploited to give up their children, with hefty processing fees instead funneling directly into the pockets of local fixers. [1, 2]
• Document Falsification: Adoptions arranged through his network frequently involved fabricated identity papers, false maternal consent documents, and mismatched biological backgrounds to bypass both Sri Lankan and European legal checks