Adopted children who blew the whistle are left with a bitter feeling following fraud investigation

To share On Saturday, 17-year-old Thereza De Wannemaeker from Denderleeuw testified in Het Laatste Nieuws about her fraudulent adoption from Ethiopia in 2009. According to the official documents, her biological mother had disappeared and her father had passed away. Later, Thereza discovered that none of that story was true. Over the past few days, the newspaper received another fifteen testimonies regarding suspected adoption fraud. At the center of it all is the adoption agency Ray of Hope (RoH), which collaborated from 1997 to 2017 with an Ethiopian contact person who, according to the testimonies, is completely unreliable. Member of the Flemish Parliament Lorin Parys (N-VA) wants an extra session of the Flemish Parliament regarding the potentially fraudulent adoptions before the elections. He calls for a “thorough and independent investigation”. Flemish Minister of Welfare Jo Vandeurzen is also in favor of such an investigation into past adoption practices. Babyfarms in Sri Lanka That sudden decisiveness leaves Adinda Aelvoet and Priyani Libert, adopted children from Sri Lanka who spoke out in this newspaper a year and a half ago, with a bitter feeling. “Now that elections are approaching, our politicians are springing into action. But when we came out with our adoption story early last year, absolutely nothing happened.” Advertisement On January 27, 2018, Aelvoet and Libert testified in the weekend supplement 'Zeno' about their own adoption from Sri Lanka in the 1980s, which presumably took place fraudulently. During their search for their biological parents, a few years ago they ended up with RoH's local contact person, Sunil Wijewardena, through Kind en Gezin and Steunpunt Adoptie. Between 1997 and 2011, he arranged all 49 adoptions from Sri Lanka for RoH. In the years that followed, the adoption agency also engaged him for 'aftercare'. Adopted children who, like Aelvoet and Libert, were searching for their biological parents were entrusted to Wijewardena. On September 27, 2017, this newspaper revealed that Wijewardena was closely involved in large-scale adoption fraud by the Dutch FLASH Foundation in the 1980s. Of the thousands of Sri Lankan babies adopted in the Netherlands through that adoption agency in the 1980s, the papers for 70 percent turned out to be forged. Children were stolen from their parents and resold for exorbitant sums. Adoption children were even 'bred' on baby farms . At the time, Wijewardena was responsible for transporting FLASH's adoption children. No grounds for an investigation Following our reporting, Lorin Parys asked Vandeurzen for further explanation in the Committee on Welfare, Public Health and Family on 10 October 2017. The Minister replied that there was no indication of fraud and therefore no grounds for an investigation. Adinda Aelvoet: “One of Jo Vandeurzen’s arguments was that, according to him, everything had changed. RoH started in 1994. Vandeurzen stated that at that time, international adoption was regulated much more strictly than in the 1980s. Vandeurzen did not consider it a problem that RoH and Steunpunt Adoptie collaborated with a figure like Wijewardena until at least 2017.” “'There is no objection to a Flemish service collaborating with someone who also collaborates with a Dutch licensed service,' he stated in the Welfare Committee. That 'Dutch licensed service' was Stichting FLASH, which was exposed on Dutch television in the spring of 2017 as a large-scale fraudster in adoptions. The adoption of Thereza De Wannemaeker dates back to 2009. In reality, therefore, absolutely nothing has changed since the 1980s.” Priyani Libert was adopted from Sri Lanka in the 1980s. Priyani Libert was adopted from Sri Lanka in the 1980s.Source Tim Dirven Priyani Libert was adopted in Sri Lanka in 1984 and wanted to search for her biological parents in 2015. “I asked Kind en Gezin for help. They forwarded my file to Ray of Hope, because that adoption agency had a contact person in Sri Lanka specializing in tracing biological parents: Sunil Wijewardena.” In the span of two weeks, he found my alleged biological parents. Kind en Gezin invited me to view Sunil’s investigation. It consisted of a few photos in which my so-called biological parents posed with him. Copies of identity cards or other official documents were missing. “Sunil’s bill amounted to 450 euros, or two Sri Lankan monthly salaries. I paid this through Kind en Gezin. At first, Sunil claimed that my nine new brothers and sisters were aware of my existence. Later, he said they did not know about my existence. A DNA test was dismissed. 'Money' was the only thing my so-called biological parents seemed interested in. At the end of 2016, I broke off all contact.” Adinda Aelvoet: “I find it incomprehensible that both Kind en Gezin and Steunpunt Adoptie continued to work with Sunil Wijewardena of RoH until at least the end of 2017. Perhaps they are still working together, because an official termination was never announced.” “After my particularly bad experiences with Sunil in 2013, I made it clear that he was completely unsuitable for organizing and leading roots trips. He was only after money and tried to manipulate us. The adoption coach at Steunpunt Adoptie said she was appalled by it. Yet no action was taken, and they continued to do business with him. In October 2017, Minister Vandeurzen announced that RoH would have an integrity investigation conducted into Wijewardena. Has that actually taken place, what are the results, and is that man still being called upon? I would like to know.” Chairwoman with two hats A few days after her testimony in this newspaper, Aelvoet received an email from the director of Steunpunt Adoptie. “She offered me follow-up conversations and wrote that she was working on starting a buddy program for adoptees. ‘This comes much too late for me,’ I replied. There was no investigation into my own file: I was expected to provide the evidence of fraud myself first. Which is the world turned upside down, because I want an investigation precisely to find out whether fraud has been committed.” Libert was invited by Kind en Gezin for a meeting. “Flemish Parliament Member Katrien Schryvers (CD&V) was also supposed to be present. She is Chair of the Board of Directors of RoH and Vice-Chair of the Flemish Parliamentary Committee for Welfare, Public Health and Family. I found it strange that, as RoH Chair, she wanted to sit in on my meeting with Kind en Gezin. I got the uncomfortable feeling that they wanted to butter me up. That is why I let that meeting pass me by.” Katrien Schryvers (CD&V) is vice-chair of the Welfare Committee and chair of the board of directors of the contested adoption organization Ray of Hope. Katrien Schryvers (CD&V) is vice-chair of the Welfare Committee and chair of the board of directors of the contested adoption organization Ray of Hope.Source BELGIAN “Because Schryvers is also chairwoman of RoH, she had to briefly pass her gavel to a colleague from the N-VA at that particular committee meeting on October 10, 2017,” Aelvoet notes. “The committee that outlines the adoption policy is therefore co-led by someone who is the chairman of the board of directors of an adoption agency. Isn’t that utterly ridiculous?” “Kind en Gezin suggested having my file scrutinized by the Central Adoption Authority in Sri Lanka, but I have absolutely no confidence in that,” states Libert. “Because that is exactly where things went wrong with my adoption: that Central Authority was one of the players in the fraud. So I would have to have my adoption file investigated by a perpetrator. I politely declined.” Not everyone counts According to Aelvoet and Libert, the problems with adoption in Sri Lanka, Congo, and Ethiopia are not isolated cases. “Just as in the Netherlands, there has been a red line of fraud running here since well into the 1970s,” says Aelvoet. “The Dutch government takes this seriously and has assembled a commission to conduct a thorough investigation into all forms of adoption fraud. Here, following Ethiopia, vague promises are now being made. All that procrastination is a consequence of that close entanglement with politics.” “After our testimonies, we heard many similar stories from acquaintances who were also adopted from Sri Lanka,” says Libert. “But they are afraid of the impact of the media attention. After Ethiopia, we can assume that there is something fishy about even more intercountry adoptions by RoH. Surely that must be investigated at the very least?” “We requested an investigation into all Sri Lanka files and received a flat refusal from the Welfare Committee and Minister Vandeurzen. That hit us hard. Two weeks ago, I had the honor of meeting Michelle Obama in Amsterdam. If I have learned one thing from her, it is that everyone counts. If Minister Vandeurzen does have the Ethiopian adoption files investigated, but ignores the Sri Lankan ones, it will feel to us as if not everyone here counts.” Everything is up in the air. “When the adoption fraud in Sri Lanka came to light a year and a half ago, the ground fell away from under my feet,” says Aelvoet. “As an adopted child, you know little about your origins. When serious adoption fraud comes to light, you become completely destabilized. Because suddenly, everything is up in the air. Your identity becomes a big question mark again.” To protect myself, I tried to put that story behind me. But as long as there is no major investigation into our adoption history, that is difficult. Now there is that news about Ethiopia, and in a few months it might be about adoption fraud from another country. Time and again, we are confronted with it. That is very painful, and I want to spare other adoptees from that. That is why there is a need more than ever for a truth commission on adoption, without taboos. As long as there is no such commission, it will never stop.