Norwegian adoption authorities have recommended a suspension of all foreign adoptions for two years pending an investigation into several alleged illegal cases.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norway’s top international adoption agency on Tuesday recommended suspending all international adoptions for two years pending investigations into several alleged illegal cases, but Denmark’s only international adoption agency Adoption agencies also announced they would cease operations due to similar concerns. .
The Norwegian government has the final say, and Gjersti Toppe, Minister for Children and Families, said she believed further investigation was necessary and had asked the Norwegian Directorate-General for Children, Youth and Families to do so.
In Denmark, the private DIA announced it would suspend all adoptions from abroad after the Danish Ministry of Social Affairs, the highest authority on the issue, announced a suspension. DIA handles adoptions from the Philippines, India, South Africa, Thailand, Taiwan, and the Czech Republic. On January 2, Denmark suspended adoptions from South Africa.
“Adoption must be safe, sound and in the best interests of the child,” Norwegian Director of Education and Training Hege Nilsen said in a statement. “Our assessment is that the risk of misconduct is real and at the level of recommending a moratorium until the committee submits its report and makes recommendations on what the future adoption system should be. about it.”
Norway’s Directorate General for Children, Youth and Family Affairs has announced that families who have already adopted children from the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, South Africa, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Colombia and Peru will be allowed to complete the adoption process. , it was then announced that it would be limited. Agency evaluation. Couples who have obtained adoption approval from South Korea will also be allowed to adopt if they are matched with the child.
According to national statistics, the majority of children adopted in Norway are from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines and Colombia.
Earlier this month, the department said an investigation into the adoption system was needed following media reports about suspected illegal adoptions. Norway’s VG newspaper reported that some children were trafficked in the Philippines and given fake birth certificates.
“The risk of document forgery is so great that we cannot be confident that the legal safety of children will be reliably protected,” VG quoted the directorate as saying.
In November, the agency also suspended adoptions from Madagascar, citing a lack of security for adoptions to be “carried out in accordance with international principles of adoption.”
There are three private adoption agencies in Norway. Verdens Barn handles adoptions from Thailand, Korea, and South Africa. InorAdopt arranges the adoption of children from Hungary, Taiwan, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic. Adoptionsforum facilitates the adoption of children from the Philippines, Colombia, and Peru.
Sweden’s only adoption agency announced in November that it would suspend adoptions from South Korea after claims that documents regarding the origins of children adopted from the Asian country were falsified.