Swedish probe suggests banning international adoptions

New Straits Times

5 days ago

STOCKHOLM: A Swedish probe ordered by the government recommended today banning international adoptions, citing serious irregularities spanning decades.
Children brought to Sweden have been adopted from abroad without the free and informed consent of their parents, erroneously declared dead, or put up for adoption by someone other than their parents, the head of the probe, Anna Singer, told a press conference.
"In some cases, they have also been given up by parents who did not understand the implications of consenting to international adoption," Singer said, as she handed her report to Social Services Minister Camilla Waltersson Gronvall.
There had also been "confirmed cases of child trafficking in every decade from the 1970s to the 2000s, primarily in the context of private adoptions", Singer said.
Cases of trafficking had been reported from Sri Lanka and Colombia in the 1970s and 1980s, Poland in the 1990s, and China in the 1990s and 2000s, she said.
The probe also showed the government had been aware of these irregularities "very early on".
About 60,000 people in Sweden have been adopted from abroad, according to the Family Law and Parental Support Authority (MFoF).
The top five countries of origin are South Korea, India, Colombia, China and Sri Lanka.
The report found "significant and systemic gaps" in documentation in Sweden concerning the origin of children adopted abroad.
False information such as "the date of birth, information on the parents, as well as the circumstances and reasons" for the adoption had been identified in documents, Singer said.
The report noted that Swedish regulations had been aimed primarily to facilitate international adoption.
Most of the adoption activity was handled by private organisations, which had an interest in having as many children as possible adopted, according to the report.
Due to the irregularities, the probe proposed banning all international adoptions and that Sweden publicly apologise to those affected.
"The state needs to recognise the human-rights violations that have occurred," Singer said.
International adoptions have drastically decreased in Sweden since the 1980s, according to data from Adoptionscentrum, the country's largest adoption mediation group.
In 1985, more than 900 children were adopted abroad, compared to 14 since the beginning of 2025, according to the organisation.-AFP